Have come up through hard work, not parachuted: Suvendu Adhikari

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari Saturday said he has come up through hard work and has not been parachuted or helped to move up the rungs - a comment which did not go down well with the party's top brass.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari Saturday said he has come up through hard work and has not been parachuted or helped to move up the rungs - a comment which did not go down well with the party's top brass. Adhikari, one of the most influential mass leaders of TMC in the Midnapore Jangalmahal region, said those who were inducted into the party by him were now conspiring against him.

Many in the TMC believed that his comment was aimed at a senior TMC leader and MP. "I have neither been parachuted nor have I come up through lift. I have come up the hard way. Those who were inducted into the party by me are now conspiring against me," Adhikari said while addressing a programme here.

TMC working president of East Midnapore district, Akhil Giri asked Adhikari to come out clean about whom he was referring too. "Instead of making comments which weakens the party, he (Adhikari) should come out clean on whom he is referring," Giri said.

According to TMC sources, Adhikari, who holds the portfolio of the state transport department, has been maintaining a distance with the party's leaders and has given several important party meetings a miss. "He did not attend several party meetings, both online and in person. We are apprehensive about his future move. Only time will tell what he is up to," a senior state TMC leader said.

According to sources, the BJP though it declined to comment on the development, would be keen to have a "mass leader" like Adhikari who holds sway over various assembly seats in the tribal Jangalmahal districts of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore districts in its camp. He is a member of the powerful Adhikari family of East Midnapore district. His father Sisir Adhikari and younger brother Dibyendu Adhikari are TMC MPs from Tamluk and the Kanthi Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.

He had played a vital role in TMC's Nandigram movement in 2007 which had helped the party snatch power from the Left Front.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)