KOLKATA: At a time when senior Trinamool Congress leaders such as Suvendu Adhikari are leaving the party, BJP vice-president Mukul Roy on Thursday claimed that the TMC was destined to disintegrate as it was formed on anti-CPI(M) and anti-Congress plank and has no constructive ideology.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party now has no other political agenda except criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Roy told reporters here.
Banerjee broke away from the Congress and established the TMC in 1998 and it ousted the CPI(M)-led Left Front government, which ruled West Bengal for 34 years, in 2011.
"In a party where everything centres around one Mamata Banerjee and everything good is attributed to her, any genuine self-respecting political person, having years of experience at the grassroot level, is bound to feel suffocated and the stifling atmosphere can be worse than any private limited company," Roy claimed.
He wondered whether a political personality can be associated with such a party for long.
Roy, who was once considered the right hand man of Banerjee, left the TMC in 2017 to join the saffron outfit.
"Like the Bangla Congress, the TMC tasted initial success but it also will not last long. It will disintegrate in near future," he said.
Congress leader Ajoy Mukherjee broke away from the party and set up the Bangla Congress which ruled the state along with the CPI(M) twice between 1967 and 1970 but both the governments were short-lived.
The party later merged with the Congress.
Roy predicted that the TMC will fail to reach the three-digit mark in the elections to the 294-strong assembly due in the state in April-May next year.
When told that the ruling party has a large number of MLAs, MPs and councillors still loyal to its leadership, the BJP vice-president said, "Watch whether they remain there or come over to the winning side."
To a question, he said that he did not have any knowledge if Suvendu Adhikari, who resigned from the primary membership of the TMC earlier in the day, will join the BJP in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his programme in Purba Medinipur district on Saturday.
"But I must say that Suvendu is a product of people's movement," said Roy.
When asked if TMC MLA Jitendra Tiwari, who quit as the chief of the Asansol Municipal Corporation on Thursday, is also a product of people's movement, Roy said he was talking about Adhikari.
On the Centre's letter asking the state government to send three IPS officers on deputation and the TMC's opposition to it, he said, "So far as I know, in a federal structure the Centre has the authority to send central cadre officials on deputation as per law."
The three IPS officers, who were responsible for the security of BJP president J P NAdda during his recent visit to the state, have been called to serve in central deputation days after the saffron party leader's convoy was attacked on its way to Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas district on December 10.
Roy said, "I made 100 calls to the South 24 Parganas SP during the attack on the convoy of J P Nadda but got no response. I was also injured in stone-throwing during the attack."
The BJP leader alleged that there has been politicisation and criminalisation of the police force in West Bengal where "there is little scope to keep your spine straight during service".