Close on the heels of senior TMC leader and Bengal Minister Suvendu Adhikari resigning his post sparking speculations of his joining the BJP the saffron outfit on Sunday claimed that at least eight Trinamool Congress Ministers were preparing to join it.
BJP MP from Bankura Soumitra Khan said that eight TMC leaders including ministers and MPs were in touch with the BJP and would soon that party. Hours after State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said December was going to be a disheartening month for the TMC as the Bengal ruling outfit would find people leaving a sinking boat.
Khan was more direct in taking the names of senior TMC leaders even as he said ministers “Subroto Mukherjee, Rabindra Ghosh and Gautam Deb will leave the TMC soon.” Besides he also named senior leader and MP Saugato Roy among the list of possible deserters.
Though Ghosh, Deb and Roy said they had no intentions of quitting the Trinamool Congress, sources said that the leadership was keeping close watch on them and many others. “We respect our ideology of tri-colour and so will never accept a communal ideology,” Deb said.
Other TMC MLAs who have openly rebelled against the party and have dropped hints of quitting it are Singur Legislator and veteran farm leader Rabindranath Bhattacharya, Sitai MLA Jagdish Basunia, Barrackpore and Diamond Harbour MLAs Silbhadra Dutta and DipakHaldar.
“Wait till December there are many TMC leaders who are in touch with us and would soon be with us… We will take all of them provided they have a clean record and are willing to work for our ideology and the people,” Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, the TMC tried to put a brave face on Sunday with party MP and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee taking powerful East Midnapore satrap Suvendu Adhikari head on saying “those who talk of not taking the lift but breaking the stair cases to rise up in their careers should know that I also have taken the stair case and not taken a parachute or lift to rise up in life.”
Adhikari had a few days ago said that he had been with the people and taken the stair case and not taken a lift like many others to rise up in his political career. He was apparently indicating Banerjee who has replaced him as the Trinamool youth wing chief.
Daring the BJP leadership for referring to him innuendo Banerjee said “these BJP leaders are cowards and so they do not take my name directly… they only refer to me as the Bhaipo (nephew)… I dare them to take my name… but they will not do that because Prime Minister Narendra Mod, Amit Shah, Mukul Roy earlier tried to put allegations against my name and I gave them a legal reply in the High Court … they know that if they do that again I will drag them to the court.”
The immediate reference of his speech was apparently remarks from Modi who during a poll campaign had said that, “Vhatija ka batti gul ho jaiga (nephew’s power will go).” Banerjee also referred to Kailash Vijaybargiya’s recent speech in which he said that TMC which used to be people’s party, its leaders’ and workers’ party, Mamata Banerjee’s had been reduced to the party of the “nephew” and his alleged syndicate.
