Former chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday vowed to conduct her Martyrs' Day event on July 21 even if only five people were to show up.
Her pledge came amid the Ritabrata Banerjee-led bloc's betrayal in the Assembly, and that of the Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar-Sukhendu Sekhar Ray bloc in Parliament.
At a party workers' meet organised by MLA Kunal Ghosh titled "Amra Beiman Noi (We are not traitors)", Mamata delivered her address via speaker over Ghosh's phone.
"I hope to get permission on July 21," said Mamata, whose chairperson's post is now contested in the party she founded in 1998 by the Ritabrata-led "ashol (real)" TMC.
"You be there (on July 21). Even if there are five workers, I will speak," Mamata said. "Those with good sense, come back. The dishonest will be left neither here nor there."
To applause from the audience, she said: "Some people have been dishonest to save themselves.... Your mother raised you... today when she is sick, won't you look after her?"
Without naming Ritabrata, she called him "a BJP-sponsored CPM leader". "Must say the CPM did one good thing. It expelled him," she said.
Ritabrata riposted: "Kunal Ghosh calls me 'a nokuldana worth four annas (insignificant)'. Why is she wasting so much time on me?"