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Mukul Roy’s exit won’t affect Trinamool: Derek O’Brien
Derek O’Brien is the Rajya Sabha floor leader of Trinamool Congress, virtually the largest party in the Parliament after the BJP and the Congress, since the AIADMK suffered a split.
The exit of Mukul Roy, former founder-member of Trinamool Congress, will no way dent the party’s prospects in upcoming polls, said Derek O’Brien, the quizmaster-turned-politician, here on Sunday.
“There was also lot of brouhaha in Delhi in 2006 when CPI(M) and Congress came together. But what happened? People of West Bengal know Mamatadi. Let’s wait for the panchayat results. We will win the semi-final (panchayat polls) 4-0 and then in the final (Lok Sabha), too, we will win 9-0,” said O’Brien, who is waiting for the release of his first book on politics, “Inside Parliament: Views from the Front Row”.
Roy, the former general secretary of the party, joined BJP earlier this month and is expected to strengthen its organisational side. The BJP is fast emerging as the prime challenge for the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal — the state with 42 Lok Sabha seats.
O’Brien is the Rajya Sabha floor leader of Trinamool Congress, virtually the largest party in the Parliament after the BJP and the Congress, since the AIADMK suffered a split. The quizmaster also defends its link with AAP while hobnobbing with the Congress, saying, “For AAP, Didi is a neutral personality. And every political party is bound to take its own decisions.”
While Trinamool is known as a party where Banerjee’s words are final, O’Brien claims there is a system of discussion in the party: “Our core committee meets every month. Sub-committees are formed to structure our views on key issues.”
When asked if he has learnt anything from Modi in the past four years, O’Brien says: “If he comes a little more to Parliament, I will probably learn more from his experience. But what can you learn from a teacher who only comes for one hour a week?”
