Mukul Roy, who has just joined BJP, reached Kolkata after he was given a grand entry into the party by central leaders in New Delhi. Roy was given a rousing reception from the airport to the BJP office in North Kolkata’s Murlidhar street. Thousands of party leaders gathered on the way and showered flower petals.
Roy termed Amit Shah as his national leader and vowed to work with West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh in a bid to quash the speculation that he would be treated badly by the state leaders of BJP.
“I can only tell you that nationally Amit Shah is my leader. In Bengal it’s Dilip Ghosh. I will work in Bengal under the leadership of Dilip da,” said Roy while embracing Ghosh.
Roy said he was taken aback by the enthusiasm of the people.
“BJP is in power in 13 states. It’s ally is in power in seven states. I can only say that BJP is coming to power in Odisha and West Bengal in the coming days. It will also get a landslide victory in Himachal Pradesh and massive majority in Gujarat,” said Roy.
To a question on whether he would be able to fight his old friends in the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, Roy said, “Even Pandavas had to fight Kauravas in the Maharabharata despite the fact that they were brothers.”
Ghosh said that Roy had been one of the supporters of Trinamool-BJP alliance in nineties and early 2000.
“So we are not new to him. Our party offices are only new for him,” said he.
However, there was a sign of disgruntlement. Senior leaders like Rahul Sinha and a few other leaders stayed away from the function where Roy was given reception.
Sinha was not available for a comment.
Sources in the leadership said that Shah is in hurry and would like to see the party in all 77,000 booths in West Bengal. So he relied on a tainted leader to take BJP all over Bengal before 2019. Roy, apparently, has promised him to do that.
Roy said he would expose Trinamool Congress on November 10 at a BJP rally in Kolkata.
Asked about his reaction on Trinamool Congress’ opposition to GST, Roy said, “I have to say a lot of things to expose them. Wait till that time.”
