Hyderabad: A parallel development was taking place in Kolkata when West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee took the dais to address her signature July 21 Martyr's Day rally.
Mamata's one time man and one of her oldest accomplices when she was founding her party the Trinamool Congress, Mukul Roy, was on his way to Delhi after receiving an urgent call from Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Roy had switched sides in 2017 and joined the saffron brigade.
BJP has initiated a week-long marathon meeting at their party headquarters from today where all key functionaries from the state including party MPs, MLAs and organisation bigwigs have been summoned. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, General Secretary (Organisation) Subrata Chattopadhyay and general secretaries Sayantan Basu, Sanjay Sinha and Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato are attending the meeting. The party's national general secretary (Organisation) B L Santosh and leaders overseeing the affairs in Bengal, Shiv Prakash, Arvind Menon and Kailash Vijayvargiya will be present during the various rounds of discussion. Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda will also be attending some sessions, sources said.
But, the summoning of Mukul Roy has already raised several eyebrows in the state as there were talks about Roy being miffed as he was not given any decisive role by the party till now. There are talks doing rounds that he might consider returning to Trinamool Congress if the situation remained unchanged. However, the veteran politician had rubbished the talks terming them as 'grapevines without any substance.”
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The timing of this marathon meeting also coincides with the state Governor Jagdeep Dhankar meeting Amit Shah earlier this week on Monday. Apprising the Union Home Minister about the prevailing law and order, political and Covid-19 situation of West Bengal, sources said the Governor had made it clear that the situation in the state is “worrisome”. Dhankar had raised questions about the partisan role being played by the state police forces and complained of rampant corruption and nepotism in cyclone Amphan relief distribution. The issue of politicisation of higher education in the state and the role of Vice-Chancellors was also discussed.
In a tweet ahead of the meeting, the Governor had said that under Article 159 of the constitution, as a Governor he will try to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. The governance in the state has been the cause of concern and worry for about a year. The non-responsive stance of the government is most unfortunate.
The Governor's meeting with Shah, which happened barely two days ahead of BJP's dissection meeting on West Bengal, carries much significance with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee already raising concerns that the Centre, “does have an ulterior motive and is trying to topple an elected government in the state by imposing President's Rule.”
With Mukul Roy in Delhi and former Kolkata Mayor and another close confidant of Mamata Banerjee who also had switched sides and joined BJP, Sovan Chatterjee, also told to join the meeting, the subject matter on the table is indeed gaining much significance.
