‘He backstabbed us’: Trinamool Congress slams Dinesh Trivedi’s move to BJP
Hitting out at Trivedi's decision to join the BJP, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told news agency PTI that the leader didn’t say anything against his former party in the last several years and decided to do so just before Bengal was about to go into polling.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday reacted sharply to former leader Dinesh Trivedi joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the March-April assembly elections in the state.
Hitting out at Trivedi's decision to join the BJP, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told news agency PTI that the leader didn’t say anything against his former party in the last several years and decided to do so just before Bengal was about to go into polling. Ghosh further labelled Trivedi as ‘ungrateful’ and accused him of betraying the people of the state. “He held several posts in the party and was entrusted with many responsibilities. At a time when he should repay the Trinamool Congress, he has backstabbed it,” the TMC leader added.
Echoing Ghosh’s remarks, senior TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy told PTI that leaders like him enjoyed power during their tenure and left the party at the time of elections.
Trivedi was inducted into the BJP earlier in the day in the presence of party chief JP Nadda and Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pratap. Terming his entry into the BJP ‘as a golden moment he had waited for’, Trivedi said that the people of Bengal had rejected the TMC, were distressed with violence and corruption and were ready for a real change in the state.
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The 70-year-old leader had announced his resignation from the TMC in the Rajya Sabha on February 12 and told Parliament that he was feeling 'suffocated' and cited his inability to speak on the law and order situation in Bengal. He had also highlighted his limited role as a member of the Upper House for bringing any change in the ground situation in the state. Once considered a close aide of TMC supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Trivedi was her choice for serving as the Union railways minister in 2011 during the UPA government.
The Trinamool Congress has witnessed a slew of resignations ahead of the assembly elections in Bengal. Before Trivedi, Suvedu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee—both former ministers in Banerjee’s cabinet—and other leaders quit the ruling party in the state and joined the BJP. The latest addition to the list of defectors is Dinesh Bajaj and Sonali Guha, who might soon join the BJP.
Elections in the state will be held from March 27 to April 29 in eight phases and votes will be counted on May 2.
(With PTI inputs)
