Many TMC leaders contacting me, says Mukul Roy

Kolkata: BJP leader Mukul Roy asserted on Monday that the Trinamul Congress will soon fall apart as he has been flooded with calls from the ruling party’s leaders for their wish to join the BJP.

On the speculation about the exit of heavyweight Trinamul minister and Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee from the party, he claimed that Mr Chatterjee, being close to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, knew everything about her.

Mr Roy said, “Many Trinamul leaders have been calling me. The Trinamul will collapse if they switch to the BJP.”

He was speaking on the sidelines of a BJP meeting for the Panchayat Elections at Ranaghat in Nadia.

Asked about Mr Chatterjee’s future Mr Roy added, “He is close to Mamata. He knows all about her.” Keeping the suspense alive the BJP leader however did not clarify about the details Mr Chatterjee is aware of the Trinamul supremo.

State Bharatiya Janata Party president Dilip Ghosh however made it clear that the BJP would not welcome whoever would quit the Trinamool.

“Why will take their dirt in our organisation? Let it be with them. The BJP has not landed in such a situation that it has to take all of them,” he said.

Mr Chatterjee who is the fire minister alongwith two other portfolios: environment and housing reportedly told three Trinamul councillors of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation that he was not their leader ‘anymore’ when the trio visited him at his residence at Rabindra Sarobar in south Kolkata on Sunday to get some departmental files signed by him.

On March 10 he, however, had ruled out the speculation about him quiting the post of Kolkata Mayor and leaving the party. Mr Chatterjee has been in a tight spot both in his political life and personal life since the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate grilled him in the Narada case last year.

His security cover was recently trimmed by the Mamata Banerjee government from Z-plus to Z category.