Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday dared chief minister Mamata Banerjee to file a legal suit against him for claiming that she had sought Union home minister Amit Shah’s intervention for restoration of national party status to Trinamul Congress.

Once a legal suit is filed against him, he will be able to appeal to the court to make Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) a party in the suit so that the call details of the two landlines at the chief ministers’ office from March 4, 2023 to April 12, 2023 can be revealed, he said.

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“I have already received a legal notice from Trinamul Congress on this count. I want them or rather challenge the chief minister to file a legal suit against me. In that case, I will be able to contest that and appeal to the court to make TRAI a party in the matter so that the call details of her official landline numbers are revealed. There is a restriction for any individual to get such details and hence right now I am not able to get the same through RTI and circulate among media persons. So, I challenge them to file a legal suit against me,” the Leader of Opposition told media persons this afternoon. On 18 April, while addressing a public rally at Singur in Hooghly, Adhikari claimed that immediately after the Election of Commission of India (ECI) withdrew the national party status of Trinamul Congress, Mamata Banerjee rang up Amit Shah with a plea to retain Trinamul’s national party status until the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“She had appealed to Amit Shah to retain Trinamul’s national party status till the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, the home minister clearly told her that the commission’s decision cannot be reversed by him since ECI is an autonomous body,” Adhikari said on 18 April. On Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee told media persons she is even ready to resign as the chief minister if the claims of her calling the Union home minister, is proved.

“I heard that on Tuesday one upstart individual claimed at a public meeting that I had called up their supreme leader Amit Shah four times after the Election Commission withdrew Trinamul Congress’s national party status. If they can prove this I will resign as the chief minister. But if they cannot prove these allegations, will they rub their noses on the ground?” she had said on Wednesday.