In a major relief for West Bengal’s ruling’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), rebel former minister Suvendu Adhikari who quit the Mamata Banerjee cabinet last week has decided that he will not be resigning. Senior party leader Saugata Roy said Suvendu Adhikari will be working with party chief Mamata Banerjee to ensure TMC’s victory in the upcoming assembly elections.
The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday (December 1) night avoided a major crisis before the crucial assembly polls when its heavyweight leader Suvendu Adhikari who quit the Mamata Banerjee cabinet last week has decided that he will not be resigning from the party.
The change of mind came after TMC top brass held a high-level meeting with the disgruntled party heavyweight in a bid to iron out differences within the incumbent formation.
Also read: Conflict between Dilip Ghosh, Soumitra Khan resurfaces in Bengal
Senior party leader Saugata Roy said Suvendu Adhikari is not going to BJP, and will be working with party chief Mamata Banerjee to ensure TMC’s victory in the upcoming assembly elections.
We met Suvendu Adhikari yesterday. An earlier decision was reinforced that he will stay in TMC only without any question of joining BJP. Suvendu will clarify whatever he wants to, via a press conference. We still have 218 MLAs & only one has quit the party: TMC leader Sougata Roy pic.twitter.com/ddHpF29XyX
— ANI (@ANI)TMC MP Saugata Roy said, “Suvendu Adhikari is not going to BJP. It was a foolish assumption. I had a fruitful meeting with him today along with Prashant Kishore, Sudip Banerjee & Abhishek Banerjee & things are sorted out. He is with TMC & we will work together to make Mamata Banerjee win again.”
State Irrigation and Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari had tendered his resignation as minister from the Mamata Banerjee-led state cabinet on Friday morning as he was unhappy with organisational decisions taken by Abhishek Banerjee and Kishor.
He has also left the chairperson’s post of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioner’s (HRBC) last week.
Also read: Rival political forces share stage together in Siliguri
Lawyer-turned Trinamool MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay, who had attacked Adhikari last week at a public meeting, said: “I am really happy today as he is with us. This is not the time to post-mortem what I said in the past. I genuinely welcome the move. If necessary, I will personally speak to Suvendu. We all will unitedly fight out the BJP in Bengal.”
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, however, said that it is an internal matter of the Trinamool Congress.