Congress leader Deepa Das Munshi confirmed to the media that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukul Roy had indeed called her, but it was never about her “joining the BJP”.
“It seemed more like he wanted to join the Congress”, she said, following rumours that Roy had called her up and she was going to join the BJP.
Referring to a telephonic conversation she had with Mukul Roy on Saturday, Deepa Das Munshi outright denied reports of her joining the BJP or of any meeting with Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Calling herself a “Congress soldier”, Das Munshi stated that it might be the “strategy” of the BJP to spread such rumours based on one phone call. Adding that the phone connectivity was “bad” and that the “call got disconnected”, she clarified that Roy hadn’t even mentioned anything about her joining the BJP. Instead, “it sounded like he wanted to join the Congress”, stated the Congress leader from Raniganj.
Wife of the late Congress leader and Rajgunj MP Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Deepa Das Munshi too too has been a parliamentarian from Ranigunj in 2009. However, she lost the seat to Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Md Salim in 2014. This time, the pre-poll seat sharing equation between the CPIM and Congress in West Bengal has already seen the Congress concede two seats to the CPIM (which had been won by the party) – one of them being Raniganj.
There are talks that this has not been well received by Deepa Das Munshi. She is said to have stated that she will wait for the Congress leaders at Delhi to “take a call” on this.
Allegations are now surfacing that the BJP has taken a strategy of calling leaders of others political parties and spreading rumours that they are joining the BJP.
Recently, BJP leader Mukul Roy visited the house of Trinamool leader and Salt Lake Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta, sparking rumours that Dutta was joining the BJP. Apparently, Roy was himself keen on visiting his former party colleague for having a meal together. Questions are being raised as to how journalists came to know about this personal visit so quickly that they reached Dutta’s house before Roy left. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee herself intervened in the matter.
Trinamool Congress leaders are alleging that this has been a strategy adopted by the BJP to create division among the leaders and raise suspicion among colleagues and fellow party workers.
