After joining BJP, Suvendu Adhikari called ‘traitor’ in hometown by TMC

On Tuesday, Adhikari addressed his first rally as a BJP leader alongside party’s state president Dilip Ghosh in Burdwan district.

Four days after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in presence of Union home minister Amit Shah, former Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari on Wednesday was branded a “traitor” and his family was targeted at the first Trinamool Congress (TMC) roadshow and rally at Kanthi, his hometown in Bengal’s East Midnapore district, since the defection.

Though Suvendu Adhikari is the only member of his family to join the BJP, his father and two brothers were conspicuous by their absence at the rally. (ANI Photo)

Before the rally, there was a clash between the BJP and the TMC workers in the district’s Ramnagar area. The rally was organised by Akhil Giri, TMC lawmaker from Ramnagar and a known detractor of Adhikari.

Adhikari’s followers announced that he will hold a counter-rally at Kanthi on Thursday. Adhikari avoided the media.

On Tuesday, Adhikari addressed his first rally as a BJP leader alongside party’s state president Dilip Ghosh in Burdwan district. Accusing the TMC of being involved in smuggling of cows, coal and sand, he said, “If the TMC returns to power it will start an illegal kidney trade as well.”

The ruling party hit back on Wednesday on Adhikari’s own turf.

“Suvendu is no strongman in Bengal politics. He lost the first assembly and Lok Sabha polls. He won his first assembly election from Kanthi South in 2006 but only after his father, the incumbent, vacated the seat. He was given two important portfolios in the cabinet. What more did he want? He is a traitor. Kanthi is not the kingdom of any family,” TMC Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy said at the rally.

Roy even called Adhikari Mir Zafar, the general who betrayed Shiraj-ud-Daulah, Bengal’s last independent nawab who was defeated by the East India Company in the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The battle marked the launch of British rule in India.

On December 19, Adhikari and six other TMC legislators, a TMC Lok Sabha member, three MLAs from the Left and Congress and at least 20 other district-level leaders of the ruling party joined the BJP at Shah’s rally in Midnapore town. This marked the biggest defection of elected TMC leaders in the run-up to the assembly polls due in about five months.

For months, the dissident leaders had voiced their grievance against Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and election strategist Prashant Kishor, who was roped in by the party last year after the BJP won 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats.

“A few days ago, I organised a meeting where Abhishek and Kishor were present. Suvendu told Abhishek in front of me that he had nothing to say against Abhishek. After joining the BJP, Suvendu called him an extortionist. Who does he think he is?” Roy told the crowd.

Though Suvendu Adhikari is the only member of his family to join the BJP, his father and two brothers were conspicuous by their absence at the rally. TMC workers who walked past their home in the heart of Kanthi town shouted slogans and called them traitors.

Suvendu Adhikari represented East Midnapore’s Nandigram seat where a long land movement helped Mamata Banerjee oust the Left Front government in 2011. His resignation from the state assembly was accepted by the speaker on Monday.

Adhikari’s father, Sisir Adhikari, is the eldest among the TMC’s Lok Sabha members and has been Mamata Banerjee’s close associate since the party’s birth in 1998. Sisir Adhikari and his elder son, Dibyendu, represent two Lok Sabha constituencies in East Midnapore. The youngest son of the family heads the civic body in Kanthi town.

Scoffing at Wednesday’s rally, the state BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “How many people in that crowd were from Kanthi? The crowd was ferried from Nandigram.”

Incidentally, no senior BJP leader is scheduled to attend Adhikari’s rally on Thursday.