Sougata Roy: Why didn’t Subhendu dare to form his own party if he didn’t like Trinamool anymore?

Veteran Trinamool Congress leader Sougata Roy on Tuesday asked why Subhendu Adhikary didn’t “dare to form his own party” if he was so frustrated and unhappy with the Trinamool Congress. “Mamata Banerjee severed ties with the Congress and formed her own party, because she dared to. Why did Subhendu Adhikary not have the courage to do the same? Why did he land up in the BJP?” Roy asked.

Earlier in the day, Adhikary – at a public meeting in East Burdwan’s Purbashali – said that the Trinamool Congress would have perished in 1998 had the BJP not supported it. Answering this, Roy said that while it is true that the Trinamool had formed an alliance with the BJP, the former had severed ties with the BJP after after the Gujarat riots of 2002. “People are upset with Subhendu Adhikary because he has joined a communal party,” Roy said. He added that Adhikary’s name will be remembered like that of Mir Jafar, for being a traitor. “For years, he was minister, MLA, MP and headed big posts, lapped up the ghee, milk and cream by using Mamata Banerjee’s name. People will respond appropriately to such traitors,” Roy said.

The Trinamool Congress MP added that he was witness to the fact that Subhendu Adhikary had said during their internal meetings that he had no differences with MP Abhishek Banerjee. “In all the meetings he said he has no problem with Abhishek Banerjee, but now, publicly he is alluding to him as ‘nephew’ and calling him extortionist. No one should stoop so low the way Subhendu has,” Roy said.