The lotus will bloom in all homes, Soumendu Adhikari said Thursday.
Calcutta:
Days after Trinamool rebel leader and former Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari resigned from Mamata Banerjee’s party and joined the BJP, his younger brother also switched sides and today joined the saffron field.
Soumendu Adhikari was a Trinamool Councilor and Chairman of the Kanthi Township in East Midnapore District, Suvendu Adhikari Territory. Briefly retired from that post last week, he joined the BJP today with at least a dozen other Trinamool councilors in the presence of Suvendu Adhikari at a rally in Kanthi’s bedroom.
Two other members of the Adhikari family remain Trinamool MPs, Suvendu Adhikari’s father, Sisir and brother Dibyendu, something that Abhishek Banerjee, a Trinamool MP and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, had taunted Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday. Ms. Banerjee had said that a man who cannot make the lotus bloom in his own home is trying to do so in West Bengal.
Suvendu Adhikari had replied that the lotus would not only flourish in his own home, but also on Harish Mukherjee and Harish Chatterjee streets in Kolkata. Abhishek Banerjee lives on Harish Mukherjee Road, a stone’s throw from Harish Chatterjee Street, where the Prime Minister lives.
On Thursday, Soumendu Adhikari himself had said that “the lotus will bloom in all homes”, hinting at his imminent crossing in the footsteps of his brother.
“The TMC will constantly disintegrate,” Suvendu Adhikari said today in Nandigram, East Midnapore district. He joined the BJP on December 19, along with six other Trinamool MLAs and a party deputy, during Shah’s demonstration in Medinipur.
His father, Sisir Adhikari, and his brother, Dibyendu Adhikari, have yet to show any signs of moving.
With a number of local leaders joining the BJP, the party is preparing to replace Trinamool in West Bengal in the next assembly elections scheduled for April-May this year.
However, Mamata Banerjee has ignored these changes and appears confident of retaining power.
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