The rift between singer-turned Member of Parliament Kabir Suman and his party Trinamool Congress came to the fore on Saturday with the former expressing resolve to lodge protest outside the Parliament against the proposed anti-Naxal 'Operation Green Hunt' at the cost of expulsion from the party.
"I am firm in my resolve to give dharna in front of Parliament against Operation Green Hunt even if my party refused to give me sanction. I am a worker of mass movement, I will lodge my protest. I cannot support state terrorism. If my party expels me, I will accept it, and continue my protest," he said.
However, he said that nobody should draw the conclusion that he was supporting the Maoists.
"I am not supporting the Maoists," he told a Bangla news channel.
He said that party's chief whip Sudip Bandopadhyay has written a letter to him saying a meeting of the parliamentary party would be convened after the Union budget where 'they will give their opinion and I will express mine. But even if none in the party supports me, I will not budge from my stand.'
Suman had created a flutter last November by openly criticising the party, by saying despite being a major partner of the United Progressive Alliance, the TC should not have supported the government on this issue.
"It will be good even if party chief Mamata Banerjee says this now," he said.
Image: Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman