'Won't be able to live without Didi': BJP's Sonali Guha wants to rejoin TMC
Kolkata: Former TMC MLA Sonali Guha, who switched over to the BJP ahead of the elections, on Saturday wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, apologising to her for leaving the party and urging her to take her back.
In the letter, which was shared by Guha on social media, she said that she left the party after being emotional.
"I am writing this with a broken heart that I took the wrong decision of joining another party after being emotional.
I could not get accustomed there," she said.
"The way a fish cannot stay out of the water, I will not be able to live without you, 'Didi'. I seek your forgiveness and if you don't forgive me, I won't be able to live. Please allow me to come back, and spend the rest of my life in your affection," she added.
Guha, a four-time MLA and once considered to be the 'shadow' of the chief minister, was among the slew of TMC leaders who switched over to the BJP ahead of the assembly elections.
She was dropped from the TMC's candidates' list this time, following which she left the party after an emotional outburst on TV channels, and joined the BJP.
She did not fight the elections, but had said that she would work for strengthening the BJP's organisation.
When contacted, Guha said that she felt "unwanted" in the BJP.
"My decision to join the BJP was a wrong one and I can feel that today. I did not bother to tell the BJP about leaving that party. I always felt unwanted there. They tried to use me and asked me to badmouth Mamata-di. I could not do that," she said.
Guha, a former deputy speaker of the state assembly, said she was willing to meet the chief minister to rejoin the TMC.
"I will personally try to meet 'Didi' but she is the chief minister and must be busy. You cannot expect her to give you time whenever you seek an appointment," she said.
"I will go to her residence next week on the day when the last rituals of her brother who passed away recently are scheduled and try to talk to her," Guha said.
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Karnataka Assembly passes Social Boycott Prevention Bill
Belagavi (Karnataka) (PTI): The Karnataka Assembly on Thursday passed the Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill unanimously.
The bill was introduced in the House by the Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa on December 12.
The bill defines social boycott as a gesture or an act, whether oral or written, of any social discrimination between the members of the community.
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The bill proposes three years of imprisonment and a fine extending up to Rs 1 lakh. It also prohibits people from gathering, assembling, or congregating at any time and at any place with the view or intention to deliberate on the issue of imposing social boycott on any member of the community. It prohibits gathering to impose social boycott.
The bill also says that if the accused is convicted, the court should hear the victim on the quantum of sentence and then only pass the sentence.
During the discussion, Mahadevappa termed the bill historic and said the aim of the bill is to bring equality in society and to protect backward people from further getting marginalised through social boycott.
The BJP and the JD(S) MLAs welcomed the bill.
