Suvendu Adhikari's brother removed from civic body post

BJP leader and former West Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari's brother Soumendu has been removed from the post of the chairman of the board of administrators of the Kanthi Municipality in Purba Medinipur district, TMC sources said on Wednesday.

Soumendu Adhikari had not participated in the recent political programmes of the ruling Trinamool Congress in Purba Medinipur and a section of the party leaders alleged that he was supporting his brother's mass contact programmes in the district in the last two months, they said.

His other brother and TMC MP Dibyendu Adhikari termed the decision as "unfortunate, unexpected and unfair."

The Tamluk MP said he will remain a "loyal foot soldier" of the party but will take up the matter with Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.

"She is my leader. I have full faith in her," he said.

The parliamentarian, however, said he will no longer operate out of the Kanthi Municipality building, where he had his MP office.

The development comes close in the heels of Suvendu Adhikari asserting that "lotus will bloom in his family". His father Sisir Adhikari and brother Dibyendu are TMC MPs.

Suvendu Adhikari, a former state transport minister, joined the BJP along with nine MLAs, five of them from the TMC, and a party MP during Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in Medinipur on December 19.