Sovan Chatterjee feels humiliated', offers to resign from BJP
Sovan and Baisakhi had recently met Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, expressing their desire to quit the party.
Kolkata: Within two weeks of his defection to the BJP from the Trinamul Congress along with his close friend Baishakhi Banerjee, Behala East MLA Sovan Chatterjee has offered to quit the party for “regularly humiliated’. Claiming of getting insulted, Mr Sovan had recently met BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, expressing their desire to quit the party.
The two are understood to have been miffed over recent developments related to two-time TMC MLA Debashree Roy seeking to join the BJP. He came across Ms Roy on August 14 when Mr Sovan walked along with Ms Banerjee into the BJP headquarters in New Delhi to join them.
The former Kolkata Mayor was so anguished to see Ms Roy that he made it clear to Mr Vijayvargiya that he would not attend the ceremony if Ms Roy would be present there.
Incidentally, Ms Roy was supposed to be inducted in the BJP along with him. Mr Chatterjee, however, was not aware of it. In fact, it was insistence, which has forced the BJP to keep Ms Roy’s induction to the party on hold since then, according to sources.
A few days ago, Ms Roy tried to meet state BJP president Dilip Ghosh at his residence in Salt Lake, however, she failed to do so. Reacting to the development, Mr Ghosh said he will look into the matter. The Trinamul is, however, yet to declare any stern step either against Mr Chatterjee or Ms Roy.
On August 29, Mr Chatterjee and Ms Banerjee met Mr Vijayvargiya in the city after meeting BJP leaders Arvind Menon and Joy Prakash Majumdar. Sources claimed that Mr Vijayvargiya told came to know that it was Ms Banerjee who has been opposing Ms Roy’s induction plan. He affirmed that no objection would be accepted, sources revealed. In reply, Ms Banerjee offered to quit and Mr Chatterjee also echoed her.
Ms Banerjee on Saturday said, “We are facing humiliation and insults since we joined the BJP. We could have stayed back in the Trinamul if we were to be humiliated in the BJP. We have decided to quit the party. We will send our resignation to the BJP leadership if needed.”
The Bengal BJP chief has said he had no objection to Ms Roy joining the party. Sovan Chatterjee was asked to step down both as a minister in the Trinamul Congress government and as Kolkata mayor by the chief minister in November last year, following troubles in his personal life.