‘I am follower of Marx, won’t join Trinamool’

A day after news of his resignation broke, senior Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Abani Roy, 70, confirmed the development.

“Yes I sent my resignation to national secretary JP Chandrachoodan on August 15. But the party has not taken any decision yet. It is supposed to be a secret document. Whoever leaked it to the media had some motive. Till now I am very much in the party,” Roy told HT over the phone from New Delhi.

He dismissed media reports about him joining the Trinamool Congress. “I am a follower of Marx and Lenin. I am not going to join any other organisation or political outfit. This is all gossip.”

Speculation was rife that by putting in his papers, Roy had tried to pressure the party leadership in an attempt to escape disciplinary action. He was under fire for writing to the government to scrap the $23 billion telecom deal between Bharti Airtel and South Africa’s MTN.

At the last meeting of the RSP national council in the second week of July, a section of the leadership had criticised Roy for going out of his way to urge the government to scrap the deal.

“Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication were both trying to swing the deal with MTN. Reliance lost it last year. In 2007, too, Reliance lost out to Vodafone in the bidding for Hutch Essar. But Roy expressed his reservation against foreign players only in June 2009. This raised questions”, a senior national secretariat member of the party told HT.

Roy had reportedly written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggesting methods to resolve the crisis between Anil Ambani and Mukesh Ambani, as well as fixing rates for mobile phone connections.

The RSP central council is yet to discuss his resignation. The matter would be taken up in September when the supreme decision-making body meets. Senior leaders could not discuss the issue as general secretary Chandrachoodan is in the United States.