Heavyweight Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Suvendu Adhikari has dented the speculations that he might switch over to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from his mega rally at Ramnagar in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district on Thursday
Dismissing all the rumours about him leaving the ruling party, Adhikari said, “I’m still a member of one party. I’m still a minister in the cabinet of West Bengal government. No one has asked to me to resign, neither have I deicded to leave. Mamata Banerjee didn’t force me out.”
Adhikari, who is currently serving as the Minister in Charge of Transport, Irrigation and Water resource in Govt. of West Bengal, had been explicitly expressing disappointment towards his party for not giving him position as other senior members.
After a period of silence, the former youth secretary of TMC has hit the ground hard and is letting his disenchantment with the party known at various independent meetings and rallies. Suvendu has not been seen in any TMC events for some time now.o
Ever since he began his open rebellion by holding independent rallies and meetings under the banner of ‘Dadar Anugami (Brother’s followers)’, rumours went rife that he might leave TMC. Apart from joining BJP, Adhikari floating a new party was also talked about in large sections of Bengali media.
At his last public meeting in Nandigram on November 10, Adhikari had said that there would be a “mega show” in Ramnagar. As a result, many thought he would break his silence and come out of Mamata Banerjee’s party.
“Meida hyped about the rally for their TRP. That’s not my responsibility to feed them. This is an apolitical stage of the cooperative banks. I’ll not speak anything political standing on it,” the 49-year-old MLA said.
One of the architects of TMC’s Nandigram revolution, Adhikari is still a major force of the party’s ground-level organisation in the state. Many Consider the Nandigram representative as the second biggest crowd puller of TMC after Mamata Banerjee herself.
However, as has been the norm with TMC, Mamata Banerjee has never allowed anyone to come near her in terms of matching the political aura. Instead of giving him a senior leadership role, the party tried to keep Adhikari in check ever since the reports of his despondency started to emerge.
Bengali media has been filled with reports of BJP trying to poach him for some time. Even though Adhikari has never hinted about switching to the saffron camp, his unhappiness at TMC, especially with Abhishek Banerjee, has been an open secret for some time now.