Trinamool Congress MPs from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have decided to contribute ₹4,000 each per month from their salaries for their party colleague Saket Gokhale, as a Delhi High Court judge ordered that 75 per cent of his monthly MP salary would be attached in a defamation case.

The defamation case had been filed against Gokhale by Union minister of petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Puri’s wife, Lakshmi Puri, in 2021. The decision that all Trinamool MPs will give ₹4,000 each per month to Gokhale was announced by the respective House leaders — Sudip Bandyopadhyay in the Lok Sabha and Derek O’Brien in the Rajya Sabha.

“The MPs will not allow this government, with its political vendetta, to suppress his (Gokhale’s) voice both inside and outside Parliament. We are one family, led by our beloved chairperson Mamata Banerjee,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Trinamool said Gokhale will be filing an appeal against the high court order.

“It doesn’t matter to me — I’ll only keep fighting even harder. I am a soldier of Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool,” Gokhale said in a brief statement issued to the media on Friday.