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They say that when words fail, music speaks, and the best way to describe the TMC-Suvendu Adhikari saga is through a song from Albela (1951) which goes like, “O Beta Ji, Kismat Ki Hawa Kabhi Garam, Kabhi Naram” – now popularised by the recent film Ludo.
Adhikari tendered his resignation as a member of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) a day after tendering his resignation from the Legislative Assembly, amid rumours that he will be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit on 19 December, along with a few other disgruntled party leaders, like Jitendra Tiwari, Silbhadra Dutta and Sunil Mondal.
Adhikari had been holding independent rallies outside the TMC banner and resigned from his post as West Bengal’s transport minister on 27 November. The leader, who was instrumental in the Nandigram anti-land acquisition protests, was not happy with political strategist Prashant Kishor and Abhishek Banerjee, because he felt he was being sidelined in the party.
The party had tried to negotiate with him to stop him from jumping ship and the results were evident in his rallies, where his swipes against the party’s top brass had mellowed down for a while.
But while the two-hour-long meeting with Roy and Kishor might have been seen as a sigh of relief for the party, it all came crumbling down thereafter.
Adhikari sent a WhatsApp message to Roy shortly after their meeting expressing his “discomfort”. The text read:
While the highly anticipated press conference never happened, the WhatsApp message seemed to be the deal-breaker between the TMC and Adhikari. Roy told ANI that the party had decided “not to speak to him anymore” after the text message.
He further added that Adhikari “wanted to be the leader after Mamata Banerjee. Suvendu Adhikari wanted control of 5-6 districts which wasn't possible.”
By then, Adhikari had already donned a new avatar – “son of Bengal” and “son of India.”
West Bengal CM Banerjee, in an online meeting with TMC’s top brass, said that party leaders who are in touch with the Opposition are free to quit rather than weaken the party from the inside.
She further accused the BJP, who she has been often referring to as “an outsider organisation,” of “attacking the party.”
Banerjee held a rally at Midnapore, Adhikari’s bastion, and had reportedly invited all the TMC MLAs from the region. Adhikari and his loyalists chose to skip the meeting.
And thus the war of words, which seemed to have mellowed down previously, flared up again.
Adhikari went all guns blazing against the TMC at his rally in Midnapore. Replying to rumours that his departure would be of “little to no consequence,” he said:
Echoing a hymn similar to the BJP, he criticised the TMC on fueling Bengali sentiments by saying, “we are Indian first and then Bengali” and later against TMC’s “outsider” tactic against the BJP.
He further went on to slam the party’s functioning by calling it a “party-cracy” where “the state is being run according to the wishes of the party.”
Undeterred from her goal to stop the BJP, Banerjee’s attacks kept coming.
Before tendering his resignation, Adhikari had claimed that he was “attacked 11 times” after which he was given Z-category security from the Centre.
He even wrote to the CBI stating that jailed Saradha chief Sudipta Sen had accused him falsely in the chit fund scam. This letter, which was written on the first week of December to PM Modi, also included the name of now BJP leader Mukul Roy about making poor investments.
On Adhikari’s 50th birthday, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya called to wish him on 15 December.
Furthermore, after tendering his resignation from the Legislative Assembly. Adhikari said that the WB state police might “implicate him in false cases” owing to his “changed political state.” He even wrote to the governor stating the same.
Coming back to Adhikari leaving having “little to no consequence,” on Wednesday, he met disgruntled Pandabeswar MLA Jitendra Tiwari and Purba Burdwan MP Sunil Mondal at Mondal’s residence. which also saw the presence of Col Diptangshu Chowdhury, chairman of South Bengal State Transport Corporation, and Nityananda Chattopadhyay, councillor of Guskara municipality.
Following that, five TMC leaders from Malda, too, tendered their resignation while Tiwari resigned as mayor of Asansol.
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Published: 17 Dec 2020,08:06 PM IST