Ashamed of being part of TMC for 21 years: Suvendu

Former West Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari, who recently jumped ship from the Trinamool to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Saturday that he feels really ashamed of being part of the Trinamool Congress for 21 long years of his political career.

Kolkata: Former West Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari, who recently jumped ship from the Trinamool to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Saturday that he feels really ashamed to be a part of the Trinamool Congress for 21 long years of his political career.

Addressing an event at BJP party office in Hastings, Adhikari said: "I feel really ashamed that I was part of that political party (Trinamool Congress) for 21 long years. It follows no discipline at all. It has become like a company. We have come out of that company and got membership in a proper political party."

He said that for over two decades, Bengal is following the culture of "for the party, of the party and by the party". The CPI-M-led Left Front government did it for 34 years, and then the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress followed in the same footsteps, he said.

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"Only BJP can establish the culture of 'for the people, of the people and by the people' in Bengal. If we really want economic reform and generate job opportunities in Bengal, we should go for the BJP, which is ruling at the Centre. The saffron party should come to power in Bengal as well," he pointed out.

Referring to the death of 135 BJP workers in the state, Adhikari said that already the party workers, under the leadership of BJP state unit chief Dilip Ghosh, have consolidated its base in Bengal. "They have gone a long way. Now it is our responsibility as obedient party workers to take it forward," he said.

He said the people of West Bengal should work towards transforming the state into "Shonar Bangla" in the time to come, a slogan raised by the BJP.

IANS