Trinamool’s Jitendra Tiwari, MLA from Asansol and former mayor of the city, has accused the state government of not allowing the Asansol Municipal Corporation to get Central funds due to politics and avoided meeting urban development minister Firhad Hakim in Kolkata on Tuesday evening. He told the leadership that he will talk only with chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and nobody else.
Since Banerjee is touring north Bengal, the party informed Tiwari that the CM may meet him on December 18, a TMC leader aware of the development said.
This happened on a day when former cabinet minister and party heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari stoked speculations that he may join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to the poll-bound state later this week.
Speculations started in Asansol too where two TMC councilors, who are known to be close to Tiwari, wrote social media posts praising Adhikari.
In a letter to Hakim on Sunday, Tiwari said that the state government did not let the Asansol Municipal Corporation receive funds to the tune of Rs 2000 crore from the Centre under the smart city project because of political reasons. Though marked confidential, the letter got leaked.