On Saturday, BJP leader Rajib Banerjee met with Trinamool Congress politician Kunal Ghosh at the latter’s home in Kolkata. The TMC’s West Bengal state secretary is Kunal Ghosh.
“I came to meet with you as a courtesy. This has nothing to do with politics. That reservation, as I stated on Facebook, is still in place. I am currently a member of the BJP “Rajib Banerjee informed the reporters. “It was a courtesy meeting,” Kunal Ghosh was reported as saying.
Asked about Mukul Roy’s decision to return to the TMC, Rajib Banerjee said, “It is his own decision. I have nothing to say.”
Banerjee, a former West Bengal minister, left the TMC in the run-up to the assembly elections to join the BJP. After visiting Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi in January, Rajib Banerjee was one of five TMC leaders who joined the BJP.
The meeting between Kunal Ghosh and Rajib Banerjee on Saturday comes after BJP leader Mukul Roy rejoined the TMC. Mukul Roy, Rajib Banerjee, and Suvendu Adhikari were among the top Trinamool Congress politicians who defected to the BJP before the election.
Rajib Banerjee made news earlier this month when he skipped a major party meeting headed by BJP West Bengal unit chairman Dilip Ghosh. Other leaders who did not attend the conference were Shamik Bhattacharya and Mukul Roy.
A statement posted by Rajib Banerjee on Facebook earlier this month is also being viewed as critical of the BJP.
“People will not take it kindly if, just for the sake of opposing a government elected with huge popular support, threats of Delhi and Article 356 [President’s Rule] are used at the drop of a hat. We should rise above politics and stand by the people of Bengal, who have been devastated by Covid and Yaas,” Rajib Banerjee said in the post.
While the statement did not identify any BJP leaders, it is widely assumed that the criticism is meant at TMC-turned-BJP politician Suvendu Adhikari, who is now the West Bengal Legislative Assembly’s Leader of Opposition (LoP).
Rajib Banerjee, a former forest minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, ran unsuccessfully for the Domjur assembly constituency. He was defeated by Kalyan Ghosh of the Trinamool Congress by almost 43,000 votes.
