Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh A couple of days after Mukul Roy switched back from the BJP to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), one of his followers and North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad member Ratan Ghosh on Sunday left the saffron camp while another close associate said he was not receiving respect in the Opposition party.
Several BJP leaders who were earlier with the ruling party have welcomed Roy’s decision to quit the saffron camp.
Ghosh told reporters, “I have left the party. BJP’s ideology and way of functioning are different. I could not remain there. I have appealed to the TMC leadership to take me back to the party.”
Former TMC MLA and state BJP’s Scheduled Caste (SC) Morcha president Dulal Bar backed Roy’s decision to leave the BJP. “He has taken the right decision. He could not remain in the BJP as he was not respected. If he cannot work in a party, then he has the right to quit. I had come to the BJP with his help. I am also not getting respect here. I will decide my future in the days to come,” Bar added.
Maintaining that “politics is an industry of possibilities”, Bar said, “Nothing is impossible in politics. At present, I am the president of BJP state SC Morcha, only future will say what I do next.”
Soon after Roy’s move back to his former party, BJP leader Rajib Banerjee, who too was earlier with the ruling party and is a former state minister, set off speculations after meeting TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh. Both, however, described it as a “courtesy visit”. BJP leaders Sunil Singh, Biswajit Kundu, Sonali Guha and Dipendu Biswas — all former TMC MLAs — have also expressed their desire to rejoin the ruling party. Singh and Kundu’s statements came following Roy’s departure.
TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said the party had received a large number of applications from BJP leaders willing to return to the TMC fold. “Our party’s core committee and Mamata Banerjee will decide on whether to take back these leaders. We are receiving a lot of applications,” she added.
State minister and TMC leader Bratya Basu, however, said the turncoats who betrayed the party during the election should not be taken back. “Those who betrayed the party during the election should not be entertained in rejoining the party. They are traitors who stabbed the party from behind,” he added.
Meanwhile, reacting to the comments by its leaders who had joined from the TMC, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the party would not keep those who want to leave. “Those who want to leave may do so. We don’t want such leaders in our party. People who are willing to sacrifice for the common man will continue to remain with us,” Ghosh added.
Former Meghalaya governor and BJP leader Tathagata Roy described Mukul Roy as a “Trojan horse” planted by the TMC and wondered if he had left behind more agents of the ruling party.
In a series of tweets, he said, “After having been welcomed into the BJP, he gained access to its all-India leaders, hobnobbed with state BJP’s gullible…learnt all about the party and its innermost detail, he went back and leaked everything to Mamata. But what’s done is done. Now the big question is, did Mukul leave back Trojan Horses within this Trojan Horse? BTW I used to wonder why Mukul always avoided meeting me. Now it all figures.”
The former governor also took a dig at BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who was known for his close working relationship with Mukul Roy. Retweeting a photo of the two posted by a supporter, Tathagata added, “Auntie Mamata, please take…[him] into Trinamool. He may be heartbroken missing his friend! They used to remain closeted the whole day.”
Echoing Dilip Ghosh, BJP national secretary and former MP Anupam Hazra said members not willing to stand by the party at this hour when “several of its workers are facing attacks by the TMC and going homeless are free to leave”.
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