Rubbishing a media report claiming that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made personal gains by selling her paintings to Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen, the Trinamool Congress Tuesday asserted the sale of paintings was an "honest means of raising funds for a political party".Trinamool Rajya Sabha member and spokesperson Derek O'Brien, in a statement on the party's official website, said: "Mamata Banerjee has not sold a single painting on her own or for personal gain in her life. Not a paisa from the sale of her paintings has gone into her personal account."
During the Lok Sabha poll campaign, the then Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi had repeatedly alleged that one of Banerjee's paintings was sold for a whopping Rs. 1.86 crore.While the BJP and the Communist Party of India-Marxist have been alleging that Sen bought the painting, the scam kingpin now behind bars, had denied buying any of Banerjee's paintings. Probing the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam, the CBI and Enforcement Directorate have arrested and grilled several Trinamool leaders including its MPs.Both the agencies have also interrogated painter Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya, perceived to be close to Banerjee.
Giving details of four of her painting exhibitions, the first of which was held in 2005, O'Brien said that Banerjee has donated her paintings to the Trinamool, which in turn, hosted public exhibitions under the umbrella of Jago Bangla, the official newspaper of the party."At these exhibitions, some of her paintings have been sold but the proceeds have never gone to her," said O'Brien adding the payments were made by cheque to the Trinamool or to Jago Bangla and reflected in annual income tax returns filed by these organisations.
"Art exhibitions are open to all. The sale of paintings is an innovative and honest means of raising funds for a political party and for political and social activism. There was and is nothing cloak and dagger about these transactions," said O'Brien in the statement.