BJP has claimed that hordes of disgruntled Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) leaders “are in touch” to switch sides in due course as the former has made “a deep inroad” in the State ruled by Mamata Banerjee. Days after Manjul Krishna Thakur, Minister of State in the Mamata Banerjee Cabinet, quit TMC on Thursday to join BJP, the BJP leaders maintained many more Ministers and MPS were “talking” with the party.
According to sources, TMC MP from Barrackpore, Dinesh Trivedi, could be the next to move out from the TMC and come to the party “as a trophy”. Trivedi who has not yet confirmed the reports, however, dropped good hints by applauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “vision” and “capabilities”. “I have known Narendra Bhai since 1990. I know his capabilities, his vision and sense of patriotism. So my being in touch with him is nothing new, to answer your query as to whether I am in touch with BJP,” Trivedi was quoted as saying in an interview to a Gujarati daily.
Trivedi had besides praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's style of functioning criticised the affairs in Bengal saying the State had failed to take off in the past couple of years. The BJP indicated that a number of important TMC leaders may join the BJP around the second-week of February soon after evaluating results of by-elections to Bongaon lok Sabha seat and Krishnagunj Assembly seat taking place on February 13 with results announced on February 16.
Apart from TMC leaders, the BJP is maintaining that former Cricket captain Saurav Ganguly is also continuous to be on their radar even though the cricketer has insisted that he was not interested in politics and contesting elections. On a question about taking Ganguly in the party to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee , BJP president Amit Shah said at Patna on Saturday that it was not decided yet.
According to sources inside the TMC, not only Rajarhat MlA Sabyasachi Dutta but there could be at least three dozen party leaders including MlAs and MPs who were currently in touch with the BJP and were planning to cross over. Another Trinamool Rajya Sabha member and a Nandigram crusader Debabrata Banerjee openly took aims at the ruling party saying the outfit was full of “dirty water.”
On whether the top leadership should proceed immediately to do the cleansing act he said those who were expected to do the job had run away with huge chunk of booty before turning into dictators themselves. Soon another party leader and Trinamool MlA from Siuri rebelled writing a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee where he asked her to do the cleansing job or else he would resign from his post. Ditto in the case of his party MP Anupam Hazra from Birbhum. Hazra said he had come with a dream but had failed to implement them and was intending to go back to his original job as a professor at Shantiniketan.
Apart from these leaders, the Trinamool had suspicions about State Ministers Manish Gupta, Rachpal Singh, Sultan Singh who had yet not spoken out against the party. The party was also keeping a close watch on Ministers Sadhan Pandey, MP Subhendu Adhikary et al, sources said. In fact, the Chief Minister herself had told the media a few days ago that she had information that the BJP had approached her one-time Nandigram spearhead Subhendu Adhikary.
Banerjee is considerably unsettled by the reports of 'desertion' from her ranks and understood to have said in a meeting with her core committee members that TMC's “doors are open for those who want to quit” and she does not want any of her leaders, Ministers and legislators “to back stab the party and stay with the organisation at the same time”.
BJP leaders including party State president Rahul Sinha, are claiming that TMC MPs and Ministers would join the party on February 15. “There are many Ministers, MPs, MlAs and leaders in constant touch with us and we are also ready to welcome them. Wait till February 15 to see a series of defections by Trinamool functionaries,” Sinha said when quizzed on Trivedi's 'imminent' cross-over to his party.
Sinha said, “the Trinamool is reaping the harvests of its misdeeds”, adding “like the Trinamool Congress had come to power by banishing the left Front the BJP will capture power by ousting the Trinamool.”