Sougata Roy is in talks with Suvendu Adhikari and seems to have broken the ice to some extent.
Calcutta:
There is some relief for Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, with Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari signaling a thaw in relations with the party, at least temporarily. In recent weeks, he has made his discontent clear and speculated he might speak his mind at a rally today at Ramnagar in the East Midnapore district. But he did not.
Senior MP Sougata Roy is in talks with him and seems to have broken the ice to some extent, at least for now.
“I am still a leading member of a party, I am still a cabinet minister, the chief minister has not fired me, and I have not left,” Suvendu Adhikari said.
He had just paid a floral tribute to the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the anniversary of her birth. “A journalist friend just told me that reporters are taking a lot of photos, thinking that I will change parties.
But let me tell you, I will not do politics on an apolitical platform, whatever journalists do for the PRT, “he said.
This has been Mr. Adhikari’s position for the past few weeks: He seemed tantalizingly close to a rebellion, but not taking the plunge.
However, the Trinamool strongman who took over Nandigram from the left, catapulting Mamata Banerjee to power, has been expressing his discontent louder and louder, in a heartbreaking manner, on December 10 when he said: “We will meet in the battlefield. The people will win, democracy will win. ” win. Suvendu is not afraid. ”
Trinamool leaders pounced on him immediately, warning him not to cross the line. “If you do something to harm Mamata Banerjee, remember, you will be helping the BJP in Bengal,” Minister Firhad Hakim said.
He was warned by Labor Minister Purnendu Bose that the people of Bengal would turn against him if he helped the BJP and MP Kalyan Banerjee was even more scathing in his attack.
Mamata Banerjee then stepped in and asked Senior MPs Sougata Roy and Sudip Bandopadhyay to contact him earlier this week.
It seems to have worked as of now.
Relief from Trinamool may be temporary. Even today, although he reiterated that he was still a member of the party, Mr. Adhikari repeated a position that he had previously stated. “I will not speak of politics from an apolitical platform and I will not speak of party politics while I am in it,” he said. “I’m not that unethical.”
This rally was to mark the cooperative movement.
Trinamool holds your breath. Adhikari has earned his laurels as a party organizer, building party networks at the grassroots and scoring electoral victories in several key districts, an asset that
Trinamool would not want to lose before 2021.
Yesterday, MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy and today Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya praised Mr Adhikari during a press meeting at the Trinamool media center.
“Suvendu Adhikari is a very important minister and minister. He is also a very important leader of the party. He is with us,” he said, echoing Sukhhen Roy’s words.
But in Ramnagar, the local leader of the MLA and East Midnapore district, Akhil Giri, was scathing in his attack.
“He has said that Didi has not fired him. What is the need to expel him from the party or the government. There is no great advantage if he stays, there is no loss if he leaves,” he said. Adhikari did not invite Mr. Giri to the rally today. But sources say Giri canceled a rally against it that he had planned to hold with the party council.
But Giri did not object to his anger at Adhikhari. “There was a lot of enthusiasm for their demonstration, but it was a show of failure, not a mega show at all. They brought people from everywhere. What is clear is that if the CM photo is not there, people will not come.
For more than a month, Adhikari has addressed rallies where there are no Trinamool flags or banners and the usual portraits of Mamata Banerjee.
What irritates Mr. Adhikari? He has never explained it publicly. But he is believed to be angry that his wings were clipped in favor of the leaders who, according to Adhikari, have parachuted into positions of power in the party.
“I have not arrived here by parachute, nor by elevator, either,” he said at a recent rally. “I have come up here step by step.”
.
