Kolkata: Four ministers of the Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday skipped the cabinet meeting in Kolkata triggering speculations of more resignations in All India Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The four ministers who were missing in the meeting are: Rajib Banerjee, Rabindranath Ghosh, Gautam Deb, and Chandranath Sinha.
Reports suggests that three of them have given valid reasons to the party justifying their absence from the meeting but, Rajib Banerjee, the forest minister, remained silent.
Among the other missing ministers were North Bengal Development Minister Rabindranath Ghosh of Cooch Behar. He cited his business monitoring the Dooars Chalo campaign - an outreach programme by Mamata Banerjee to help people access government services - as the reason for being absent in the meeting.
Gautam Deb, the tourism minister from Darjeeling district, has been unwell, and Chandranath Sinha of Birbhum said he was occupied preparing for the Chief Minister's visit next week.
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Rajib Banerjee has been vocal about his grievances with the TMC leadership.
On Monday, he met TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee for the second time in a week apparently to discuss his concerns. On the question of whether he has any grievance against the TMC leadership, he said, "Being a disciplined soldier of the party I will not publicly say anything in this regard. I had previously visited Partha da's residence in the past. I visited again after being called by the leadership. Not much should be read into it."
Assembly elections in West Bengal are likely to be held in April-May next year. The ruling TMC and the BJP are fiercely campaigning against each other in the run-up to the election.
