With a number of Trinamool Congress turncoats making a beeline for a Ghar Wapsi— post the TMC’s fantastic victory in the Assembly elections — a fresh tug of war seems to have started over senior BJP leaders like Mukul Roy who was among the earliest migrants to the saffron outfit.
According to sources Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called up the former Railway Minister to enquire after the health of his wife who is recuperating in a Kolkata hospital. This, hours after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee met the BJP vice president personally to express his concern.
“She is like my mother and has seen me from my childhood … so where is the harm if I come to enquire after her health … politics is one thing and decorum is another,” Banerjee said after meeting Roy in the hospital.
The timing of junior Banerjee’s visit and the Prime Minister’s call are crucial at a time when at least half-a-dozen migrants who left Trinamool to join the BJP ahead of the polls have conceded their “blunder” sought a public apology from the Chief Minister and asked for a reinstatement.
Among these leaders are former Assembly Deputy Speaker Sonali Guha, footballer-turned-TMC MLA Dipendu Biswas, Sarala Murmu and Amal Acharya. The buzz is that even heavy duties like Rajib Banerjee, a former Minister who left the party weeks before the polls, was also considering a return.
In fact the TMC is likely to hold a high-level meeting on Saturday to decide on the Ghar Wapsi plea of the defecting leaders, sources said adding however that senior leaders like Sougato Roy have advised the leadership to put an embargo on such homecoming for the defectors for at least six months.
Coming back to Roy, though the BJP vice president said a fortnight ago that he would continue to remain an ardent soldier of the BJP an FB post by his son and former TMC MLA Subhrangshu Roy — who too later joined the saffron outfit — has raised eyebrows in the opposition outfit. While BJP leaders attacked the Trinamool Government for post poll-violence he wrote “Self-criticism is more necessary than criticising a Government elected by people.”
While the other leaders seeking Ghar Wapsi may have their individual political compulsions for Roy it is slightly different some of his followers in the BJP say. According to sources the Roy camp is unhappy with the BJP leadership that preferred Suvendu Adhikari — who switched sides just before the elections— over the former Railway Minister for the State Opposition Leader’s post.
“Our dada is being constantly sidelined by a section of the party which is not pleasant for a person of his seniority,” a follower of the leader said refusing to dwell however on whether he would take a decision in near future.
Meanwhile in an apparent bid to placate Roy the State BJP leadership is considering his name as the Chairman of the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee. “We have quite a few names but two names are doing the rounds: these are of Mukul Roy and Ashok Lahiri,” a source said.