Vanishing act

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee had designated her nephew MP Abhishek Banerjee as party representative for the dinner hosted in honour of US President Barack Obama by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday. As it turned out, no one from the TMC showed up at the event. Party insiders say some senior TMC leaders made little effort to hide their displeasure at being passed over by Mamata and hence, at the last minute, she asked Abhishek to give the event a miss. There were already too many voices of dissent within the party in the wake of the Saradha scam.