Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra was on Monday appointed the party’s president of Krishnanagar in West Bengal’s Nadia district.
Party MLA Rukbanur Rehman has been made the chairperson of the Trinamool Congress’ Krishnanagar unit.
The appointment comes at a time when Moitra is embroiled in a cash-for-query case. Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai have accused Moitra of taking bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.
The Hiranandani Group had initially dismissed Dubey’s allegations as having “no merit”. However, on October 19, Hiranandani, the chief executive officer of the real estate company, submitted an affidavit accusing Moitra of spreading unverified information about Gautam Adani.
Moitra had clarified in an interview in October that she gave Hiranandani access to her online Lok Sabha account but denied taking any bribes from him. She had claimed that MPs do not type their own questions and that the queries can only be submitted upon entering a one-time password, which is delivered to the phone number of the legislators.
The Lok Sabha ethics committee, which investigated the allegations, adopted its report on November 8. Six panel members supported it and four submitted dissent notes. In its 500-page draft report, the committee recommended Moitra’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha, alleging that her actions are “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal”.
On November 9, Bahujan Samaj Party MP Kunwar Danish Ali, who is a member of the committee, claimed that the report was adopted within 2.5 minutes without holding any discussion.
Moitra has been the MP from the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency since 2019.
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