Mukul Roy has decided to hit West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee where it could hurt her the most... without directly targeting her. Roy's plans appear to have put West Bengal's ruling party on the back foot already.
A month after leaving the Trinamool, which he helped establish, and joining the BJP, Roy, does not plan to target Mamata directly but is aiming his guns on Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata's nephew.
Roy had earlier revealed that the logo of West Bengal—Biswa Bangla—was not a public but a private property, which was owned by Abhishek. Some days back, Roy also publicised some papers where he said that Abhishek had given a declaration that he owned the logo at the insistence of his aunt, the chief minister.
“I had applied for the patent of the logo at the insistence of the chief minister,” said Abhishek in an affidavit given to a court.
Abhishek's lawyer Sanjay Basu said, “It’s irrelevant now whether he applied for a patent or not as he subsequently withdrew it.” The lawyer might have wanted to downplay the issue. But it has created enough of a political storm.
Already, the government is trying to stop Roy from making further comments on the issue. A North Bengal sessions court, under whose jurisdiction the mater does not even fall, has issued a gag order to Roy.
“I will move the highest court in the state about it. I cannot be asked to shut up. More will be on the way,” said Roy.
Sources confirmed that Roy told the BJP leadership that it would be improper to target Mamata directly as, despite all odds, she was the most popular leader in Bengal today.
“So it will be better to hit her close aides and make the Trinamool Congress unstable,” said a BJP source.
Roy's performance for the past one year had drawn immense applause from the central leadership of the BJP. Roy has also been able to start cracking the ground-level support of the Trinamool Congress.
Around 2,000 workers—comprising Panchayat members and pradhan and common workers—joined the BJP in the last one month from different parts of Bengal. At its state office, Roy was given a separate cabin. Sources said that the BJP might consider sending Roy to the Rajya Sabha after the Gujarat election.
The central BJP leadership had also instructed state-level leaders to take Roy's advice. Roy had been asked to report directly to general secretary in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya and party president Amit Shah.
Roy had also advised the party to translate the BJP’s national slogans into Bengali.
“Even Bharat Mata ki jai should be called as Bharat Mata r joy in Bengali. Only then, can such slogans be accepted by Bengalis,” he reportedly told the BJP leadership.
So does that mean that Roy would lead the BJP in the coming panchayat elections?
“My leader in West Bengal is (state unit) president Dilip Ghosh and at the centre, it’s Amit Shah. Let me work as a soldier of the party,” Roy said, in response to queries.
