Partha slams Mukul for comments against Trinamool

Kolkata: Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool Congress secretary general, on Thursday came down heavily on Mukul Roy for his statement that BJP is not a communal force and Trinamool Congress was its ally since its inception in 1998.

Chatterjee said: "It is really amazing that Roy has made this great discovery that Trinamool was NDA's partner only after the party suspended him for six years recently."

Trinamool Congress was a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which was led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. "But Trinamool had left the alliance when Vajpayeeji no longer led the BJP and the party began to fan communalism. Can you compare between Vajpayeeji and Narendra Modi?," he said adding: "When the party had alliance with BJP, he was then the second most powerful person in the party as he claimed."

Calling Mukul Roy "the Kanchrapara Boy", Chatterjee said he should always remember that it was because of Mamata Banerjee he could become the Railway minister and is still now an MP of the party. "He is enjoying all the facilities of an MP and is constantly criticising the party. And because of these anti-party activities, he has been suspended for six years."

It may be mentioned that Roy held a press conference on September 25 and resigned from the working committee of Trinamool Congress and had announced that he will resign from the primary membership of the party as well from Rajya Sabha after the Durga Puja. Roy had also announced that he would let people know under what circumstances he had resigned from the party.

Over the past six months Roy began to distance himself from Trinamool Congress. He was seen hobnobbing with BJP leaders in Delhi too.

He held the post of vice-president in the party along with Sultan Ahmed. After Ahmed's untimely demise, Trinamool abolished the post without informing him. In the meeting of the core committee of the party held in September, without naming him, party chief Mamata Banerjee had said that those who had secret understanding with BJP are free to leave the party.