After heavy speculations and rumour-mongering, it seems like Trinamool Congress (TMC) has started to believe that the heavyweight leader Suvendu Adhikari will eventually depart.

However, ruling party’s Midnapore leadership, consisting the likes of Manas Bhunia and Ajit Maity has called for patientce. “A wicket may suddenly fall. But we need to be patient and can’t be nervous,” Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika quoted the TMC leadership as saying.

Adhikari, known for expressing his disappointment for not being given position as other senior members in TMC, has fuelled speculations about his future after reportedly hitting out at the party leadership indirectly.

At an event in a college in Nandigram on Sunday, Adhikari had said that he did not owe his political success to anyone. “I haven’t used a lift to go up or a parachute to come down. I have taken each and every step alone,” the 49-year-old said.

In another event last week, a quote from Swami Vivekananda by Adhikari had sparked a fresh round of rumour-mongering in West Bengal’s politics.

The 49-year-old MLA had said, “Why am I praising all of you today? Because nothing is achieved on a solo effort. Swami Vivekananda has said: ‘This “me and mine” is the very root of all the evil in the world’. Only those who practice we and us, can survive.”

Talks about his future have been further heated up by banners that have been put up in various parts of South Bengal. Under the name of ‘Dadar Anugami (Brother’s followers)’, the banners with pictures of Adhikari in it have come up across Midnapore and in some parts of Nandigram.

What has been bothering the TMC camp is that the party or even supremo Mamata Banerjee did not find any space in the banners. Also, all the posters contain blank spaces where signatures in support of Adhikari are being taken.

One of the architects of TMC’s Nandigram revolution, the 49-year-old MLA is still a major force of the party’s ground-level organisation in the state. Many Consider the Nandigram representative as second biggest crowd puller of TMC after Mamata Banerjee herself.

However, as has been the norm with TMC, Banerjee has never allowed anyone to come near her in terms of matching the political aura. Instead of giving him a senior leadership role, Adhikari has been kept in check ever since the reports of his despondency started to emerge.

Bengali media has been filled with reports of BJP trying to poach him for some time. Even though Adhikari has never hinted about switching to the saffron camp, his unhappiness at TMC is an open secret.