Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee will hold a mega rally in West Bengal’s Nandigram – turncoat leader Suvendu Adhikari’s Vidhan Sabha constituency – on January 7.
Interestingly, the Adhikari family’s TMC members are unsure about whether to attend the event or not, even though Suvendu’s father Sisir Adhikari and elder brother Dibyendu Adhikari are sitting TMC MPs.
Dibyendu is the lawmaker from Tamluk, while Sisir Adhikari represents the Contai constituency in the Parliament and is also TMC’s district secretary in East Midnapore.
Suvendu’s younger brother Soumyendu Adhikari is the chairman of board of administrators in Contai Municipality. He had won the seat as a TMC candidate and continues to serve the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
All the three were absent from TMC’s rally at Contai – political bastion of the Adhikari family – on Wednesday. But it remains to be seen if they can skip the West Bengal CM’s event, given that Sisir Adhikari is the party’s district secretary.
TMC launched a scathing attack against Suvendu during Wednesday’s event and called him names for ditching the party ahead of the 2021 election. Despite giving the event a miss, the Adhikari family heard everything and bore the burn of Suvendu’s decision.
Banerjee’s Nandigram rally is unlikely to present a different situation. It is expected that the TMC supremo would hit out at Suvendu at his home turf. Thus, it remains to be seen if the his family chooses to take the humiliation on face of skip it.
Interestingly, Suvendu has also called a rally in Nandigram on the same day, pushing his father and brothers into further dilemma. According to Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika, the three Adhikaris have decided to miss their party leader’s event and are contemplating the consequence of it.
Bringing an end to the long-running speculations looming over his political career, Suvendu – undoubtedly the most heavyweight Adhikari of present time – changed his loyalty and took up the saffron flag from Amit Shah at a mega rally in Midnapore last week.
Suvendu, the former Minister of Transport, Irrigation and Water resource in Mamata Banerjee’s administration, took along a total of more than 40 TMC leaders to the BJP.
Nine MLAs – six from TMC, one from CPIM, one from CPI and one from Congress – joined BJP on Saturday. One sitting and a former TMC MP also defected to the Hindutva camp.
“I am being called a traitor by those who themselves (TMC) are traitors. Had the BJP not been there, TMC would have never come into existence. In the next assembly polls, BJP will win Bengal and TMC will be defeated,” he said.