Suvendu joins BJP; Mamata will be alone before polls, says Amit Shah

Suvendu Adhikari, who resigned from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), joined the BJP on Saturday (December 19), putting an end to months of speculation.

Adhikari, along with other TMC rebels, joined the BJP in the presence of party leader and Union minister Amit Shah at a rally in Midnapore. Kailash Vijayvargiya and Dilip Ghosh were also present at the rally.

Besides, Adhikari, TMC MP Sunil Mondal and nine sitting MLAs, including five from the TMC, joined the BJP.

Adhikari called Amit Shah his “elder brother”, adding he has known the Union minister for years. He also said that when he was sick with COVID-19, TMC members didn’t enquire about his health but BJP leaders did.

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Adhikari took a swipe at Mamata Banerjee and her nephew TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee: “Tolabaaj bhaipo hatao (get rid of your extortionist nephew).”

Addressing the public rally, Amit Shah said: “Why are so many people leaving Trinamool Congress? Because of the misrule, corruption and nepotism of Mamata Banerjee. Didi, this is just the beginning. By the time elections come, you will be left all alone.”

Shah arrived in Midnapore on Saturday afternoon by helicopter from Kolkata. He paid tribute to the revolutionary Khudiram Bose at his ancestral place in Midnapore, about 150 kilometres from Kolkata. “Khudiram Bose was as much Bengal’s as he was the rest of nation’s. Pandit Ramprasad Bismil belong as much to UP as to Bengal,” he said taking a swipe at the TMC for playing regional politics.

Apart from Adhikari, MLAs Tapasi Mondal, Ashoke Dinda, Sudip Mukherjee, Saikat Panja, Shilbhadra Dutta, Dipali Biswas, Sukra Munda, Shyamapda Mukherjee, Biswajit Kundu and Banasri Maity also joined the BJP. Pandabeswar MLA and Asansol civic body chief, Jitendra Tiwari, also quit the party, amid speculations that he may join the BJP, but he quickly changed his decision and said he is still with TMC.

Mamata Banerjee is said to have told party leaders during an internal meeting at her residence not to be worried about the exit of the “traitor” MLAs from the party because “people of the state are with the TMC”.

Ahead of joining the BJP, Adhikari had written a letter to “grassroots TMC members”, in which he said the party led by Mamata Banerjee has been ignoring those leaders who built it and brought it to power. “Neither West Bengal nor Trinamool Congress is anyone’s fiefdom,” he wrote, taking a dig at Abhishek Banerjee, who had a rift with Adhikari.

He criticised the TMC for “not focusing on the all-round development of the state and the country” and said its “sole agenda is the enrichment of few particular individuals and their families.”

“Political murders are continuing unabated. Illegal activities are continuing without pause. The sole objective of the party our people elected has now become to mislead, oppress, threaten and loot, all while claiming to be defending the Constitution,” Adhikari further stated in his letter.

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Adhikari defended himself against allegations from a section of TMC that he was a traitor. “I have not left the Trinamool, it is the Trinamool that has left its ideals behind in its relentless pursuit of power instead of service,” he said.

In the letter, Adhikari added: “The party was not built in one day with the contribution of one person. It is therefore especially painful, that the individuals currently in charge of the party are treating it like their personal fiefdom. The very people on the backs of whom the party was created are now being sidelined, humiliated and outcast.” He also wrote about being irked with poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who Adhikari said TMC has “no knowledge of ground realities”.