As speculation piled up over a possible falling out between Trinamool Congress's influential leader and state transport minister Suvendu Adhikari and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, both the Congress and the BJP openly wooed him to their side. Both the parties said he was a victim of the "dictatorship" within the ruling party of the state. Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Adhikari had made immense contributions in bringing the TMC to power in West Bengal in 2011. "Now, as the wings of Suvendu are being clipped, he has every reason to feel aggrieved. He commands great support among the people. If Suvendu is forced to leave TMC, there will be far-reaching consequences within the party," he said.
Chowdhury further asked those "facing problems within Trinamool Congress" to return to the parent Congress. "Trinamool has no political identity. If anyone is facing problems within Trinamool, the doors of Congress are open for him," Chowdhury tweeted without naming anyone.
BJP's state president Dilip Ghosh said that it was becoming difficult for a mass leader like Adhikari to work in TMC. "Everything in TMC is decided in a dictatorial fashion by one person and most of the leaders do not have any freedom or dignity," he said. However, he said he is unaware whether Adhikari will join the saffron party or not. BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy said: "During my years in TMC I have seen that it was Suvendu who single-handedly fought against the left front in Nandigram. Today those TMC leaders who are lecturing him were nowhere during the Nandigram movement."
Crucial West Bengal assembly elections, where the BJP is determined to unseat CM Mamata Banerjee, are on the horizon.
Who is Suvendu Adhikari and why are the parties wooing him?
Suvendu, a grassroots charismatic leader with a huge sway in the rural belts, is a member of the powerful Adhikari family of East Midnapore district. His father Sisir Adhikari and younger brother Dibyendu Adhikari are TMC MPs from Tamluk and Kanthi Lok Sabha constituencies respectively. Sisir was a minister in the UPA-1 government. Adhikari had played a vital role in TMC's Nandigram anti-land eviction movement in 2007, which had helped the party snatch power from the left front. The land acquisition movements in Nandigram in East Midnapore district and Singur in Hooghly are considered to be two pillars which laid the foundation of the TMC government led by Banerjee in 2011.
Apart from East Midnapore district, Adhikari holds sway in about 35 assembly constituencies in West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram and parts of Birbhum. Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia were all impregnable left front strongholds which he managed to drill into.
If Adhikari defects, the TMC will find it hard to replace him with a leader even close to his stature. The Congress knows Adhikari's capabilities only too well. He was tasked by Mamata to capture Murshidabad and Malda, two remaining Congress bastions. From the civic bodies up, the area is now dominated by TMC. If Adhikari switches, there remains a question of whether the minority voters, one of the backbones of the TMC, will be spooked.
What is going on between Suvendu and TMC?
Adhikari has been distancing himself from TMC for the past several months and organising programmes without the party banner where he has spoken about being involved in the people's movement for years as a grassroot leader, and has not been granted any posts on a platter by anyone. Reports claimed that he has been disillusioned by the growing clout of Mamata's nephew Abhishek in the party.
Last week, he held a rally without the party banner at Nandigram to commemorate the anti-farmland acquisition movement in which several persons were killed in police firing 13 years ago. Adhikary even went as far as to say "We will meet at the battlefield", but stopped short of naming anyone. He said: "The Nandigram movement was a people's movement. It was not of any particular individual. I have been with the people of Nandigram."
"After 13 years, a few people are now coming here as the elections are approaching. I want to tell them if they are coming before polls, they will have to come after elections too," he said at a BUPC rally that did not have posters of Banerjee or TMC flags. About six TMC MLAs were seen on the stage with him.
Amidst conjectures of a move, poll strategist Prashant Kishor visited the East Midnapore residence of Adhikari and talked to his father Sisir Adhikari. Kishor, who has been tasked with devising strategy for TMC after the reverses faced by the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, could not meet Suvendu Adhikari during his visit to the latter's Contai residence on Thursday. He talked to Adhikari's father for long, the leader told PTI. "Kishor visited Suvendu Adhikari's house yesterday evening. He could not meet Suvendu who was not home at that time. He talked to Adhikari's father TMC MP Sisir Adhikari, they had an hour-long conversation," the leader said.
-Inputs from PTI
