Will be back with bigger mandate: Moitra on LS expulsion recommendation

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday said she will be back with a bigger mandate in the 2024 general elections, a day after the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee recommended her expulsion from the House in the "cash-for-query" matter.

She is accused of accepting "illegal gratifications" from a businessman to raise questions in Parliament at his behest.

"Proud to go down in parliamentary history as first person to be unethically expelled by Ethics Committee whose mandate doesn't include expulsion. First expel and then ask government to ask CBI to find evidence. Kangaroo court, monkey business from start to finish," the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader said in a post on X.

In another post, in an apparent reference to businessman Gautam Adani, the Krishnanagar MP said, "Also Mr. Adani - don't waste your time telling everyone 'Mahua's ticket will be cut'".

"Only thing that will be cut is your market capitalisation as your house of cards unravels," she said and asserted, "Like I said I will stand from Krishnanagar and double my margin."

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Moitra had won the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal with a margin of 63,173 votes, securing 6,14,872 votes. BJP's Kalyan Chaubey, who came second, got 5,51,654 votes.

The Ethics Committee recommended Moitra's expulsion, capping a fortnight of actions that included the deposition of three people over three sittings.

The committee, chaired by BJP Lok Sabha member Vinod Kumar Sonkar, adopted its 479-page report which, according to sources, recommended Moitra's expulsion, possibly the first such action against an MP by the panel.

Sonkar had told reporters that six members of the panel supported the adoption of the report and four opposed it.

The four opposition members said the panel's recommendation was prejudiced and incorrect , and said businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who is alleged to have given bribes to Moitra, should have been asked to depose before the panel. He has only filed an affidavit.