Hinting at a major showdown with the party, Suvendu held a closed-door meeting with other disgruntled leaders hours after he resigned as the Trinamool MLA on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who appears to have reconciled to another major loss after efforts to placate Suvendu failed, told a rally that 2-3 people who know they will not get a match ticket will leave.
Mamata has called the defectors “opportunistic and cowardly” and accused the BJP of trying to coerce the leaders of the Trinamool Congress to join the saffron party.
He also blamed the BJP for trying to break TMC using “money bags”.
Mamata had previously removed Suvendu loyalists from key positions when the party said the Suvendu chapter was closed.
Anticipating the political revenge of the ruling Trinamool Congress, Suvendu has written to Governor Jagdip Dhankar requesting his intervention to dissuade the police and the administration from implicating him and his associates in criminal cases.
Earlier, the Trinamool rebel leader had written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging interference in the investigation of the Saradha fund of accounts case.
This after Sudipta Sen, the owner of the Saradha group of companies, reportedly on December 1, wrote a letter to the prime minister and the prime minister while in jail. In the letter, he accused many TMC leaders of taking money from the Saradha check fund case.
Sudipta Sen is accused of cheating and embezzlement in the scam.
Suvendu Adhikari may not have announced his future plans, but he has dropped enough clues by adopting a divergent opinion of the party on various issues.
Opposing the outsider label that Mamata has used for BJP leaders in Bengal, Suvendu criticized the insider and outsider debate, saying that those from other states cannot be branded as outsiders.
“Bengal is an important part of India and people who come from other states cannot be treated as outsiders,” he said at the celebrations for the birth anniversary of the freedom fighter Satish Chandra Samanta in Haldia in the Purba Medinipur district.
Blaming the BJP for divisive politics, Mamata has been trying to present the issue of Bengali sub-nationalism as a rallying cry in west bengal before the assembly elections to be held next year.
By criticizing the BJP as a group of “outsiders”, the TMC chief has promised that he will never allow the saffron camp to take control of Bengal and urged the people to resist any such attempt.
Suvendu is an influential leader with a massive base. He had played an important role in the Nandigram movement. The Adhikari family wields considerable influence in at least 40-45 assembly segments in West Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram, parts of Birbhum, mainly in the Junglemahal region and areas in the minority-dominated Murshidabad district.
Sources close to Adhikari say he is likely to resign soon as a leading party member, according to the PTI news agency.
The BJP is waiting for him with open arms, and several senior state leaders salute his decisions to resign first as minister and then as Trinamool MLA.
And with Union Interior Minister Amit Shah scheduled to visit Bengal later this month, Suvendu is likely to soon complete the process of separating from the TMC and begin his new political journey.
(With inputs from agencies)
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