- Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has been deeply divided since the defeat in the recent assembly election
- BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta has advised against supporting Trinamool rebels
- Dasgupta has said the Trinamool should be allowed to self-destruct
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress now split wide open, there is assumption that the BJP should be kindly disposed towards the rebels. But that that would be a tactical mistake, senior Bengal BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta said today. In an exclusive interview with NDTV, Dasgupta, who has been inducted as a minister in the cabinet of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, said the people's mandate proved that they want a "complete detoxification process".
So it is better to allow the events in Trinamool to play out. "Let them squabble. Let them self-destruct. I don't expect that we should have to choose between these. My suggestion is very simply this -- Plague on both your houses," he said, quoting the dying Mercutio in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Read: Trinamool Rebels Play In Midfield As They Seek Mamata Banerjee's Advice
While a section of the current crop of Trinamool Congress still being "adhered" to Mamata Banerjee, the other section, Dasgupta said, is eager to dissociate themselves.
"A lot of these MLAs in particular... feel that they can somehow atone for their sins by somehow being seen to be a little disengaged from Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee... that people and the present government will look upon them with a greater degree of indulgence if they were to put a distance between themselves and the coterie which ran the Trinamool Congress," Dasgupta said.
"I don't think this sort of contrived atonement by washing yourself with some Gangajal is going to help the process of some people whose track record is not very appetizing," he added.
It is not for the BJP to enhance its strength by getting people from the Trinamool, he said.
Ritabrata Banerjee on way to meet the Bengal Assembly Speaker.
Photo Credit: IANS
"I think we got a very emphatic mandate and let us live up to that mandate... Let us forge and form a new political culture which is based on certain civilized norms... normal politics, which is based on a sense of decency, rectitude, development of West Bengal. Let's not inherit anything of what the people discarded on May 4," he added.
Asked about the role of Abhishek Banerjee in the collapse of the Trinamool, he said Mamata Banerjee's nephew represented "venality and arrogance of a magnitude of which was unimaginable".
"His speeches, the swagger, the threats which he issued during the campaign and the terror which he struck in the hearts of people for the past 10-15 years... The entire Syndicate Raj was built by Abhishek Banerjee. So, it is quite understandable that there is going to be a huge backlash against him," he said.
But it does not follow that those in the Trinamool who are blaming Abhishek today are necessarily better. "The whole outfit was rotten and Abhishek Banerjee merely represented the top of the rot. If you go down to the bottom, you will find the same mini Abhishek Banerjees in evidence everywhere," he said.
