Mamata and Suman

Calcutta, March 31: For a change, Mamata Banerjee may not find Mahasweta Devi’s advice to Kabir Suman requesting him not to resign as MP too palatable.

The Trinamul Congress chief had made it clear to her aides at a meeting in Delhi yesterday that she would rather have the Jadavpur MP out of the party than let him cause further embarrassment.

Mahasweta sent a note to Suman last night urging him not to resign after the MP sent text messages to Mamata and party chief whip Sudip Bandopadhyay expressing his desire to quit both Parliament and party.

Today, the writer said: “Differences between Suman and Trinamul have strengthened the CPM’s hands. I will advise both Mamata and Suman to sit with me and thrash out their differences through dialogue for the greater cause of driving the CPM out of Bengal in 2011.”

She also made it clear she would raise her voice if Mamata adopted any “anti-people measures” once she came to power. “It is wrong to equate me either with Trinamul or any other political party. If Mamata adopts anti-people measures after she comes to power in 2011, I will raise my voice against them,” she said.

Suman tonight went to Mahasweta’s Golf Green home where she reportedly tried to prevail on him again not to send in his resignation. She is said to have told Suman that she would ensure that Mamata talked to him.

However, it is unlikely that the Trinamul chief will entertain the idea of a reconciliatory meeting.

After meeting Mahasweta, Suman said he would wait for seven days before sending his resignation to the Lok Sabha Speaker.

“Mahaswetadi is like my mother. She requested me to wait for seven days before I send my resignation to the Lok Sabha Speaker. I must abide by what she has asked me to do,” he said after the three-hour meeting.

A Trinamul junior minister said Bandopadhyay had yesterday written to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar seeking Suman’s disqualification from the House following a directive from Mamata.

“We don’t approve of Mahaswetadi’s attempt to dissuade Kabir Suman from resigning. No senior leaders has so far contacted him after he sent the text messages,” the minister said from Delhi tonight.

A Trinamul MP said party leaders had stopped interacting with Suman because that would antagonise Mamata. “The leadership does not support Mahasweatidi’s overtures to Suman,” he added.

Although speculation was rife that Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee, who had played a key role in brokering peace with Suman after the Jadavpur MP had a tiff with the party leadership last year, might go to Mahasweta’s residence tonight, he did not do so in order to avoid bumping into Suman, Trinamul sources said.

However, Chatterjee said he had no plans of visiting Mahasweta. “The party will not tolerate any indiscipline, come what may,” he said, without naming Suman.