The Trinamool Congress is fighting hard to keep its house in order and the top leadership of the party is almost on the ground to prevent the exodus, let alone starting campaigning for the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.
Satabdi Roy, who had given signals of quitting the party last night, got several rounds of calls from the party leadership. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh rushed to Roy’s house in south Kolkata on Friday, but by then Roy had booked his ticket to fly to Delhi on Saturday.
While Roy, a popular screen star and two times MP from Birbhum, was supposed to go to Delhi to attend a parliamentary committee meeting, she had not ruled out a meeting with senior BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Ghosh held a meeting with Roy for more than two hours. But sources close to Roy confirmed that she remained non-committal and that Ghosh failed to convince her.
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Ghosh reported the matter to poll strategist Prashant Kishor who in turn requested senior party leader Abhishek Banerjee to step in. Abhishek held a meeting with Roy at 6pm.
After the three-hour long meeting with Abhishek, Roy said she would not go to Delhi on Saturday and that she would stay with the TMC.
"I think we need to stay with the TMC for the time being. So I will wait for sometime as the party has assured me that all my issues would be resolved," said Roy.
It remains to be seen whether the party can pacify her as it had earlier failed to prevent Suvendu Adhikari from leaving the party despite three rounds of discussions with Kishore and Abhishek.
Meanwhile, two other TMC leaders on Friday raised banner of revolt against the party. Former Indian football captain and MP from Howrah, Prasun Banerjee termed the party affairs completely ridiculous. While speaking to media persons, Banerjee said, “Never ever the party was in such a situation. I don’t know what to do. We cannot work in this scenario.”
When THE WEEK called up, Banerjee’s mobile was switched off.
In Siliguri, cabinet minister Gautam Deb raised his voice against the state government. “It took years to build a road here. There is no progress of government work in North Bengal. We are fed up,” said he.
The TMC, however, is yet to send any envoy to North Bengal to pacify Deb, who till the other day was known to be a strong pillar of support for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the region.
