"I'm Still A Party Member": Bengal Minister Holds Peace With Trinamool

There is some relief for Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress with transport minister Suvendu Adhikari signaling a thaw in relations with the party, at least temporarily. In recent weeks, he was making his discontent plain and speculation was he may speak his mind at a rally today at Ramnagar in East Midnapore district. But he did not.

Senior MP Sougata Roy is in talks with him and seems to have broken ice to an extent, at least for now.    

"I am still a primary member of a party, still a minister in the cabinet, the Chief Minister has not thrown me out and I have not left," Suvendu Adhikari said.  

He had just paid floral tribute to late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary. "Some journalist friend just told me the reporters are taking a lot of photos, thinking I will change my party.

But let me tell you, I will not do politics on a non-political platform, whatever journalists do for TRPs," he said.

This has been the position of Mr Adhikari for the last few weeks -- appearing to come tantalizingly close to a rebellion but not taking the plunge.

The Trinamool strongman who seized Nandigram from the Left, catapulting Mamata Banerjee to power, has however been voicing discontent increasingly loudly, ear-splittingly so on December 10 when he said, "We shall meet in the battlefield. The people will win, democracy will win. Suvendu is not afraid."    

Trinamool leaders pounced on him immediately, warning him not to cross the line. "If you do anything to hurt Mamata Banerjee, remember, you will be helping the BJP in Bengal," minister Firhad Hakim said.

Labour minister Purnendu Bose warned him that people of Bengal would turn against him if he helped the BJP and MP Kalyan Banerjee was even more scathing in his attack.  

Then Mamata Banerjee stepped in, asking senior MPs Sougata Roy and Sudip Bandopadhyay to reach out to him earlier this week.  

It seems to have worked as of now.  

Trinamool's relief may be temporary. Even today, while reiterating he was a member of the party still, Mr Adhikari repeated a stand he had stated earlier. "I will not talk of politics from an apolitical platform and I will not talk about the party's politics while I am still in it," he said. "I am not so unethical."  

This rally was to mark the cooperative movement.   

Trinamool is holding its breath. Mr Adhikari has earned his laurels as a party organizer, building party networks at the grassroots and delivering electoral wins in several key districts, an asset the
Trinamool would not want to lose ahead of 2021.    

Yesterday, MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy and today minister Chandrima Bhattacharya were full of praise for Mr Adhikari during a press meet's at Trinamool's media centre.  

"Suvendu Adhikari is a minister and a very important minister. He is also a very important leader of the party. He is with us," she said, echoing Sukhhen Roy's words.  

But at Ramnagar, the local MLA and East Midnapore district leader Akhil Giri, was scathing in his attack.

"He has said Didi has not thrown him out. What is the need to throw him out of the party or the government. There is no great advantage if he stays, no loss if he goes," he said. Mr Giri was not invited by Adhikari to the rally today. But sources say Mr Giri cancelled a counter rally he had planned to hold on the advise of the party.   

But Giri made no bones about his anger at Adhikhari. "There was so much hype about his rally but it was a flop show, not a mega show at all. People were brought from all over the place. What is clear is if CM's photo is not there, people will not come.  

For over a month now, Mr Adhikari had been addressing rallies in which there are no Trinamool flags or banners nor the usual portraits of Mamata Banerjee.   

What irks Mr Adhikari? He has never spelt it out publicly. But he is believed to be angry that his wings clipped in favour of leaders who Mr Adhikari says have parachuted into positions of power in the party. 

"I have neither arrived here by parachute, not via a lift," he told a recent rally. "I have climbed up here step by step by step."