Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president Mukul Roy has sparked a fresh round of rumours about rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Suvendu Adhikari’s arrival at the saffron camp.
“Suvendu Adhikari has already resigned. Only time will speak now. In a day or two, the entire dilemma will be over. I expect that he will join the BJP,” Roy said in an interview to news agency ANI.
Adhikari has been a hotshot political property in West Bengal ever since he started a rebellion against his own party. He had begun expressing his disenchantment with TMC with indirect jibes at “apolitical” meetings and rallies.
However, following the dramatic developments earlier this week, it is believed that the Nandigram MLA’s departure from TMC is just a matter of time.
Despite an “ice-breaking” meeting between him, Abhishek Banerjee and Prashant Kishor, Adhikari had texted party veteran Saugata Roy saying “Forgive me, it won’t be possible for me to continue”.
He is believed to have said that he was unhappy how TMC did not pay any heed to find solution to his problems and instead imposed the party’s decision on him. He did not want to reveal anything about the meeting before his press conference on December 6.
According to reports in Bengali media, TMC has now given up on its once-heavyweight youth leader and has “closed the doors” for him. “Now, if Suvendu Adhikari changes his mind, it’s up to him and he will inform what he intends to do,” Dum Dum MP Saugata Roy had said after receiving Adhikari’s text message.
Bengali media has been filled with reports of BJP trying to poach him for some time. Even though Adhikari has never hinted about defecting to the Hindutva brigade, his unhappiness at TMC, especially with Abhishek Banerjee and election strategist Prashant Kishor, has been an open secret for some time now.
One of the architects of TMC’s Nandigram revolution, Adhikari, 49, is still a major force of the party’s ground-level organisation in the state. Suvendu’s departure from TMC could be fateful for West Bengal’s governning party in next year’s election.
Hinting at his dejection with the party, Adhikari has already resigned as the Minister in Charge of Transport, Irrigation and Water resource in Govt. of West Bengal.