New Delhi: TMC MP Yusuf Pathan on Saturday issued a clarification over the allegations of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee asking him to resign as MP from his Baharampur Lok Sabha seat to contest the by-election from there herself, calling the claim "completely false".
In a self-made video on social media, Pathan said that former CM Mamata Banerjee never discussed it with him, adding that he has also never been reached out to by any party official regarding the news.
Expressing disappointment over the "unofficial news" and the ongoing deliberation around it, he affirmed that no party leader has asked him to tender his resignation.
"For some time now, news has been going viral that Mamata Banerjee asked me to resign from my MP post from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat so that she can contest the Lok Sabha election from there. Mamata Banerjee has never told me this; even in our last meeting, she didn't mention this. Nor has she conveyed this through any official party leader. This claim is completely false, and it saddens me that despite there being no official news, this is being discussed and debated on social media and across all media houses. So, neither Mamata Banerjee nor any party leader has asked me to resign from my MP seat," he said.
Earlier in the day, former Captain of the Indian Cricket Team, Sourav Ganguly, had denied reaching out to Pathan on Banerjee's behalf, asking him to resign.
In a letter addressed the all media houses, Ganguly wrote, "It was alleged that I had contacted Mr Yusuf Pathan on behalf of Mamta Banerjee, the former Chief Minister of West Bengal and had carried her message that he should step down/resign from his Constitutional post as the elected representative of the aforesaid constituency in order to enable Ms Banerjee to contest the ensuing by-elections from the said constituency."
"It is thus necessary to place on record that I was never requested/asked by Ms Mamata Banerjee to convey any message from her to Mr. Yusuf Pathan, whether to step down from his parliamentary seat, as alleged in the article. In the circumstances and, in any event, I never approached or contacted Mr. Yusuf Pathan with any such or other request/message," he added.
He called the allegations "untrue" and urged the media not to spread misinformation.
"The aforesaid allegations are untrue. i would request the media not to fall prey to rumors and speculations without verifying the correctness of the facts printed and published. It is extremely unfortunate that it was not seemed necessary to check and verify the truth and veracity of the aforesaid allegations in the article on me before publishing the same," Ganguly wrote.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and auto-generated from an agency feed.)
