In a development that further fuelled speculations of rebel Trinamool Congress MP Mukul Roy’s drifting the saffron way, the once number-2 of the Bengal ruling outfit on Monday met central BJP leader Kailash Vijavargiya.
Though the BJP leader would not commit on Roy’s inclusion in the saffron outfit he would not rule out taking all those who wanted Bengal’s development on board. “All those political who would like Bengal to grow and work under Prime Minister Narendra Modi” as there was no other political party which wanted to work on the agenda of development, the BJP leader said.
Roy’s meeting with Vijabargiya and his subsequent statement assumed importance in the backdrop of Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh’s assertion on Sunday that Narada video footages would suggest that the former Railway Minister had accepted cash from sting journalist — who faked as a prospective investor in the State — unlike other senior Trinamool MPs and Ministers who were seen in the footage accepting cash allegedly for favour.
On whether BJP would benefit from Roy’s inclusion in the party, Ghosh said “BJP is not interest in such questions as whether someone’s entry will benefit it or not, rather the question here is how much loss the Trinamool will suffer (at Roy’s exit from the party.” On whether there were chances of the rebel Trinamool leader who is also the founder member of that party along with Mamata Banerjee floating a separate party, sources close to him did not rule out such chances saying “it is up to him on whether he floats a party andallies with the BJP or joins that party himself.”
Roy had in 2015 caused a new party Nationalist Trinamool Congress to be floated following his first interrogation by the CBI in Sharada case and subsequent distance between him and the Chief Minister following reports that he had divulged vital information to the investigating agency. The TMC on Monday suffered a double-embarrassment when the Central Bureau of Investigation investigating the Sharada chit fund and Narada kickback cases on Monday raided the old office of powerful Bengal Minister and former MP Suvendu Adhikary and the Enforcement Directorate grilled former Minister Madan Mitra for several hours.
Adhikary, once Banerjee’s Nandigram spearhead is perhaps the only TMC bigwig who does not owe his political existence to his party chief thanks to his and his MP father Sisir Adhikary’s formidable mass base in East Midnapore district.
Known for his alleged ability to manipulate floor-crossing among leaders of opposition outfits the TMC strongman from Nandigram was earlier grilled by the ED in Narada case where he was purportedly seen accepting wads of currency notes from a sting journalist faking as a prospective investor in the State. Adhikary was grilled by the ED in September while Mitra who spent more than two years in jail in Sharada case was grilled by the Central Bureau of Investigation for the 3rd time on Monday.