BENGAL: Q+A WITH MUKUL ROY
MUKUL ROY left the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to join the BJP in November last year and, within six months, delivered an impressive performance for the party in the West Bengal panchayat polls. Yet his name doesn’t quite figure in the higher echelons of the state BJP. When it comes to hierarchy, it is state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and national secretary Rahul Sinha who call the shots. In an interview with ROMITA DATTA, Roy opens up on his equation within the BJP and the party’s strategy against the TMC. Excerpts:
Q. You don’t look too comfortable in the BJP, wedged between an unfriendly state president and national secretary.
I am a national executive member of the BJP and my position entails a lot of responsibilities. I am comfortable in the party. The BJP president (Amit Shah) listens to my suggestions regarding Bengal.
Q. Will you get a Lok Sabha ticket from West Bengal? Your supporters had widely expected a Rajya Sabha berth for you.
I don’t wish to contest any election. I would rather focus on all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state and help my party win as many seats as possible. But, ultimately the party should decide. About the Rajya Sabha seat, it’s better not to be nominated from a state where the party has no strength of its own.
Q. You had claimed that several TMC leaders wanted to follow you into the BJP.
They are still in touch with me, but scared of false cases and police harassment. West Bengal is a police state. There is state-sponsored terrorism. People have no freedom to express their opinion. Phones are being tapped.
Q. To many, Amit Shah’s target of 22 Lok Sabha seats for the BJP in 2019 is a laughable proposition?
2019 is going to be the beginning of the TMC’s fall. Amit Shah is talking of 22 seats, but I think we will do even better. Once the TMC starts losing ground, more of its leaders will abandon ship.
Q. While joining the BJP, you had promised to expose the TMC.
We are waiting for the right moment— before [Lok Sabha] elections. The TMC will find itself in deep trouble. The Biswa Bangla logo case is pending. The high court has asked the state government to file an affidavit. The government thinks that by forming a corporation and taking control of the logo, everything has been brushed under the carpet. But our case deals with the time Mamata Banerjee’s nephew (Abhishek Banerjee) staked claim to the logo.
Q. One of your stated reasons for leaving the TMC was dynastic politics. But Mamata says she has created future leaders for the party at all levels.
The TMC is a two-person party, and things have now come to such a pass that Abhishek is controlling her in many ways. He dictates police postings and transfers and has a say in political and administrative decisions. He is running a parallel party, YUVA (All India Trinamool Youth), within the TMC. There is infighting in the districts between the TMC veterans and the new entrants.
Q. Why is Mamata tolerating all this?
Maybe she has compulsions. And her nephew has amassed money.
Q. What’s the BJP’s gameplan?
We will not give Mamata the scope to play martyr and get sympathy votes. Bengal wants paribartan (change). But this isn’t the change people wanted. Amit Shah has sensed the public mood. So it’s Target Bengal for our party.