Amid speculation of veteran Trinamool Congress leader Sisir Adhikari joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, the leader on Wednesday, 17 March, said that he was ready to be a member of the BJP if his son, former TMC and present BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari asked him to.
“I will support my son. If they tell me to go to PM Modi’s public meeting, I will definitely go. If they tell me to join BJP, I will do so,” the TMC leader said, ANI quoted.
Further, he alleged Mamata Banerjee’s party of sidelining his family to give prominence to her bhaipo (nephew), Abhishek Banerjee. He said, “I am not a man to go there. We are TMC people. They pushed us away. Since last December, we have been abused. I am very much shocked at how the party treated us. She (Mamata) has targeted Suvendu to highlight her bhaipo,” ANI quoted.
Suvendu, who defected to the BJP in December, spoke at a public meeting in East Midnapore on Wednesday and said that his father would attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at East Midnapore district’s Contai on 24 March.
CM Banerjee and her former associate Suvendu are set to contest for the Nandigram seat in the upcoming West Bengal polls.
Sisir went on to attack the CM, saying that she cannot claim the legacy of Nandigram as it was him and his family who brought her to Nandigram, ANI reported. He also criticised Mamata for ‘spreading lies’ about her injury.
While the TMC has not yet cut off its ties with Sisir, the party’s MP and senior leader Sougata Roy said that Adhikari’s stance did not come as a surprise. “Sisir babu has said that if his son asks him to attend Modi’s rally, he would do so. His son has said that he will go. We know blood is thicker than water. So, one would expect him to fulfil his son’s wish. We knew Sisir babu would eventually follow in his son’s footsteps,” The Indian Express quoted Roy as saying.
(With inputs from ANI and The Indian Express)
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