Mukul Roy addressing at a gathering during the first BJP rally after he joins the party ,in Kolkata on November 10,2017. Express photo by Partha Paul. Mukul Roy addressing at a gathering during the first BJP rally after he joins the party ,in Kolkata on November 10,2017. Express photo by Partha Paul.

Former Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy on Friday trained his guns at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accusing her of playing “minority politics” in the state by “stopping Durga Puja and Laxmi Puja”, even as he accused his former party Trinamool Congress of having turned itself into a “private limited company” under the stewardship of ‘didi’ and her nephew Abhishek.

The bursting remarks by former TMC number 2 came almost a week after he joined the saffron party. A founder member of the TMC, Roy was inducted into BJP on November 3.

“In Bengal, Durga Puja & Laxmi Puja stopped. Mamata Banerjee is playing minority politics,” Mukul Roy said at a BJP event in Kolkata. The former TMC number 2 was referring to recent restrictions imposed by the Bengal government on idol immersion during the Durga Puja celebrations in the state. The Mamata government had prohibited immersion of Durga idol on October 1, as the date clashed with Muharram. The order, however, was later junked by the Calcutta High Court.

Roy also announced the victory of his new party– BJP, in the 2019 polls, saying “there will come a change”. “There will come a change. BJP will come into power in Bengal in 2019,” Roy was quoted by ANI as saying while addressing a public gathering in Kolkata. He had resigned from the Rajya Sabha and quit TMC earlier this month following differences with Mamata Banerjee.

Meanwhile, Mukul accused his former party Trinamool Congress of having turned itself into a “private limited company” under the stewardship of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek.

Mukul Roy addressing at a gathering during the first BJP rally after he joins the party ,in Kolkata on November 10,2017. Express photo by Partha Paul. Mukul Roy addressing at a gathering during the first BJP rally after he joins the party ,in Kolkata on November 10,2017. Express photo by Partha Paul.

Reacting sharply to Mukul’s statement, the TMC charged him with making “false statements”, and said he was the “managing director” of the party, which he is now dubbing as a company, until some time back.

Roy further said that Mamata is no longer the person she used to be 10 years back. “I still remember 10 years back, when people were being killed in Nandigram and Singur, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was busy inaugurating a film festival. Today also when people are dying from dengue, Mamata Banerjee is busy inaugurating film festival”, he said addressing his first rally here after joining the BJP recently.

“TMC is no longer All India Trinamool Congress. It has turned into a private limited company,” he said.

BJP supporters gathered at RR avenue during the first BJP rally after he joins the party , in Kolkata on November 10,2017. Express photo by Partha Paul. BJP supporters gathered at RR avenue during the first BJP rally after he joins the party , in Kolkata on November 10,2017. Express photo by Partha Paul.

Taking a jibe at former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, Roy said he used to go for foreign trips on the pretext of bringing in investment and

now Banerjee is doing the same thing. He also alleged that the minister was the president of a Durga puja organising committee which took advertisements from chit fund companies and described those entities as corporate partners.

However, TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee sharply reacted to Roy’s comments, terming them “false”. He said Banerjee did not interfere in anybody’s work in the party and took everybody along.

(With PTI inputs)

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