Joy Banerjee to quit BJP, writes to Modi

Kolkata: Actor-turned-politician Joy Banerjee, on Saturday, stated that he has decided to resign from the primary membership of the saffron party, after having "faced neglect".

He said that he has written to Narendra Modi informing him about his decision. He has explained in detail how he has been sidelined by the state BJP.

Banerjee had joined BJP before 2014 and was made a member of the national executive committee of the party.

He was removed from the committee after Rajib Bandyopadhyay joined the party from Trinamool Congress. Bandyopadhyay has left BJP and rejoined Trinamool.

Joy alleged that over the years he had been sidelined by the state leadership. Earlier, he was asked to address rallies in the rural belt where he has a fan following. However, during the campaign for 2016 Assembly elections he had not been asked to address the rural populace.

He has been suffering prolonged illness and despite requests the state unit has not given any financial assistance he claimed. He also tried to get in touch with Modi and wrote several letters to him seeking his appointment. None has beeb given till date.

Banerjee said: "Such humiliation is difficult to bear and I will quit the party." However, he did not say whether he is going to join some other party or will quit politics.

Meanwhile, BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh hit out at veteran colleague and former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy over his recent criticism of the BJP's style of functioning, and sought to know why he wasn't leaving the party if he was so upset.

Roy had been critical of the decisions taken by Kailash Vijayvargiya, Ghosh, who was earlier the party's state president, and senior leaders Arvind Menon and Shiv Prakash, blaming them in a series of tweets for BJP's poor show in Assembly polls.

The former BJP state president said, without taking any name, "If you are so upset and ashamed of all that is happening within the party, why don't you just leave?"