NEW DELHI, Jan 22: Ahead of the visits by a battery of BJP leaders to West Bengal preparing for the state Assembly elections, the ruling Trinamool Congress continued to suffer erosion in its ranks. The party received yet another jolt on Friday when the forest minister Rajib Banerjee called it quits complaining against some leaders of the party “treating others as servants.”
Though he has not made his future plans clear, but he is almost certain to join the BJP when some top BJP leaders, particularly the union home minister Amit Shah or the party national president J P Nadda visits the state in the next fortnight.
The BJP’s Barrackpore Lok Sabha member and Rajib Banerjee’s former colleague in the TMC, Arjun Singh said the young minister would be welcomed into the BJP if he decided to join. “More legislators and leaders will leave the TMC,” said Singh, almost repeating what Amit Shah had said about a month ago “by the time the elections are held, Mamata Bannerjee will be left alone in the cabinet.”
The TMC, however, sought to play down his exit calling it “good riddance.” The party MP and spokesman Sougata Roy said, “We were expecting this as he was not attending cabinet meetings for a very long time. It is good riddance as he was not discharging his duties as a minister and party leader. We tried to change his mind and make him understand. But he has decided otherwise. It is good that he has resigned otherwise we would have taken action against him. This will not make any difference to the TMC. If people like these leave, our party will get more consolidated.”
Banerjee, the legislator from Domjur, is the second minister from Howrah district and the third minister in the state to resign on the eve of the crucial state polls. Banerjee had skipped five consecutive meetings of the state cabinet and more than a dozen party programmes since September last year, when he started voicing his dissent against a section of the leadership in Howrah.
Suvendu Adhikari, the heavyweight leader from East Midnapore district resigned from the government and the TMC and joined the BJP on December 19. Former Indian cricketer and sports and youth affairs minister Laxmi Ratan Shukla resigned from the party on January 5. He served as the president of the Howrah district unit. The government immediately relieved him of his ministerial responsibilities.
On Friday, Banerjee sent his resignation letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the morning. “I regret to inform you that I hereby tender my resignation from my office as a cabinet minister being in charge of the forest department.” And later he personally went to Raj-Bhavan to hand over a copy of his resignation to the governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Banerjee made news for his singing talent in June last year when he released a video of a Hindi song composed to pay homage to the 20 Indian soldiers killed in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on the night of June 15. The song, ‘Hindustan Meri Jaan,’ was released on June 23. TMC leaders said Rajib Banerjee was having severe differences with the TMC’s Howrah unit chairman and senior minister Arup Roy.
TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee held several meetings with Banerjee to dissuade him from taking any drastic step. The young minister, however, continued to voice his dissent in public and on social media. “There are some leaders in the party who treat party workers like servants,” Banerjee said at a programme on January 3.
Since December, as many as 12 TMC MLAs, including Suvendu Adhikari, have joined the BJP. While state minister Laxmi Ratan Shukla has taken a break from politics, Banerjee is likely to join the saffron camp later this month.
BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “TMC workers and leaders are quitting the party and joining the BJP. This is because they think that TMC will not remain in power for long. They are also expressing their displeasure at the functioning of the party. This is the beginning of the end for the TMC.”
(Manas Dasgupta)