Midnapore (Bengal): In an unprecedented pre-poll churn in Bengal that Union home minister Amit Shah termed “just the beginning”, former minister and Mamata Banerjee aide Suvendu Adhikari last week led a batch of 10 turncoat MLAs and one MP – eight of them Trinamool Congress deserters – to the ranks of BJP. A total of 60 other councillors and zilla parishad and panchayat samiti members from various parties switched to saffron party in the presence of Shah, whom Adhikari referred to as “my elder brother”.
“You will be left alone by the time Bengal goes to polls,” Shah said, alluding to Mamata, at a rally in Midnapore, considered Adikari’s bastion. Of the MLA recruits, two were from the Left Front and one from Congress. Two-time East Burdwan MP Sunil Mondal rounded off BJP’s day of gains at Trinamool’s expense.
Arch-rebel Adhikari had travelled to Midnapore from Kolkata along with Shah on the latter’s chopper. “Nobody from the party I served for 22 years called me when I was quarantined at home after contracting Covid. Shah called me twice. Mukulda (Mukul Roy, who joined BJP from Trinamool in 2017) used to tell me that I would not be able to stay in that party with self-respect,” he said.
After accepting the BJP flag from Shah, Adhikari stressed the need for Bengal to discard the “anti-Centre narrative” of the Left and Trinamool in favour of Centre-state synergy. “I believe both Kolkata and Delhi should have governments under Modiji’s party for the sake of Bengal’s development," he said.
Countering Trinamool’s "traitor" tag for Suvendu Adhikari with Trinamool's history, Shah said, "Didi, what did you do when you quit Congress to form Trinamool?" Shah charged the Trinamool government with taking recourse to "the politics of fear" to stay in power. "More than 300 BJP workers have been killed. They threw stones at BJP national president JP Nadda’s convoy. Didi thought we would give up. We will not," he said.
Shah had visited freedom fighter Shahid Khudiram Bose’s family before reaching the Midnapore College ground, indicating a resolve to shake off the "outsider" label that Trinamool has stuck on BJP’s central leadership. Suvendu reminded his critics that Trinamool could not have survived without former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s support. "Trinamool was part of the NDA then."
He urged TMC workers to join him in rescuing Bengal from the "crossroads", saying "personal interests are getting precedence over public interest" in his former party. The ex-minister was particularly scathing in his criticism of Mamata's nephew and Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee, calling him "tolabaj bhaipo (extortionist nephew)" .
Explaining the change in his political stance, he said, "A Trinamool friend messaged me recently, pointing out that I had raised the ‘BJP hatao, desh bachao’ slogan before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. I messaged him back, saying I work sincerely wherever I am. I was then with Trinamool. Now, when I have joined the BJP, I will work 16 hours for the party."
