Former Railway Minister Mukul Roy’s induction in the BJP is a matter of time now. The former Trinamool Congress number two could join his new outfit in a fortnight’s time, according to sources in the State BJP. They also claim his induction in the party would “definitely boost their organisational prowess as he knows the constituencies like the back of his hand.”
“He is a good organiser,” State BJP president Dilip Ghosh recently said about Roy while another senior leader said, “the national leadership is particularly impressed by his organisational abilities.”
Assuming that Roy’s induction in the party is a “matter of time” the “Chanakya” of Bengal politics has been invited at the birthday celebrations of former State president and party national secretary Rahul Sinha which will be held at the Kolkata Port Trust guest house on October 25.
Though sources close to Sinha would maintain a studied silence on the programme saying Sinha himself had nothing to do with the celebrations as “his followers mainly organise it every year,” a leader said Roy’s presence on the occasion would certainly clear the haze about his future plans.
The former Trinamool ace organiser still enjoys considerable clout in the party grassroot knowing party men who matter personally in all the 77,000 booths. His induction may come in handy to implement BJP national president Amit Shah’s plans to boost party’s strength in the booth level, sources said.
In fact such is the apprehension in the Trinamool circles about Roy’s “secret, surprise moves” that Chief Minister has inducted her own nephew Abhishek Banerjee and Minister-cum-East Midnapore strongman Suvendu Adhikary a former MP to “take care of Roy loyalists” by disengaging them from his influence.
The two leaders will hence tour districts where Roy still enjoyed loyalty on account of personal favours he extended to the subaltern leaders over the past several years.
“As these leaders cannot oppose the Chief Minister publicly for the fear of being victimised they also cannot go out against Roy openly. The situation is like their heart is with Mukul dada and their body is with Mamata didi whose domineering ways and public reprimand they often cannot digest,” conceded a senior Trinamool leader and an MlA “hoping these lesser leaders do not play the catalyst during the elections.”
In fact Adhikary a onetime blue-eyed boy of the Chief Minister and her pointsman during Nandigram movement is also “not a completely dependable person,” the MlA said, adding Banerjee had brought Adhikary a former MP back to State politics last year from Delhi in order to keep an eye on him and to dissociate him from Roy.
Incidentally Adhikary and his father Sisir Adhikary and MP are the only two leaders in Trinamool Congress who have won their elections on their own accord and sans Chief Minister’s charisma.
Besides knowing the Trinamool’s war strategies comprehensively, Roy will be able to block the ruling outfit’s rigging techniques in an effective manner, BJP leadership believe.
Meanwhile in an unrelated development hundreds of BJP workers in Kolkata broke the barricade and demonstrated in front of the Swasthya Bhawan against the State Government’s apathy towards spreading dengue cases.
After the scuffle between the BJP workers and police State BJP leader locket Chatterjee said “The State Government should bring out a white paper on dengue related deaths in the State where many people have died and 20-25,000 people are suffering from the dreaded disease.”
Districts like North 24 Parganas, Howrah and even parts of Kolkata have been badly hit by dengue.