Dinesh Trivedi resignation : BJP welcomes him, TMC calls him ungrateful

Trinamool Congress Fridaycalled its MP Dinesh Trivedi ungrateful after he resignedfrom the Rajya Sabha, while a jubiliant BJP quicklyextended its welcome to him to join the saffron camp.Trivedis resignation came amidst the exodus fromMamata Banerjees party ahead of the West Bengal assemblypoll.An angry TMC lashed back at Trivedi, who had beenmaintaining distance with the party for the last twomonths, saying he has betrayed the party leadership and thetrust of the people.Trivedi, a former railway minister and two-time LokSabha MP, was sent to Rajya Sabha last year by TMC afterlosing the parliamentary polls in 2019.

Trinamool Congress Fridaycalled its MP Dinesh Trivedi ''ungrateful'' after he resignedfrom the Rajya Sabha, while a jubiliant BJP quicklyextended its welcome to him to join the saffron camp.

Trivedi's resignation came amidst the exodus fromMamata Banerjee's party ahead of the West Bengal assemblypoll.

An angry TMC lashed back at Trivedi, who had beenmaintaining distance with the party for the last twomonths, saying he has betrayed the party leadership and thetrust of the people.

Trivedi, a former railway minister and two-time LokSabha MP, was sent to Rajya Sabha last year by TMC afterlosing the parliamentary polls in 2019. He is reported to havehad some issues with a senior Rajya Sabha member of the partyfor the past few months.

Reacting to the development TMC Rajya Sabha deputyleader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said Trivedi is ''ungrateful.'' ''For the last so many years he (Trivedi) did not sayanything. Now all of a sudden just months before the stateassembly poll he has complaints. This shows his true colours,''Roy said.

''He is ungrateful and has betrayed the trust of themasses,'' Roy added.

Echoing him, party colleague and Lok Sabha MP SougataRoy said ''People like Trivedi enjoy power during their tenureand leave at the time of elections. If he had grievances, hecould have aired it in the party.'' An elated BJP said ''The beginning of the end of theTMC has already begun''.

Claiming that the party will disintegrate soon, stateBJP president Dilip Ghosh said ''It is only a matter of timebefore TMC disintegrates. If Dinesh Trivedi wants to join us,we will welcome him''.

BJP national general secretary and the party's Bengalminder Kailash Vijayvargiya lauded Trivedi as a good leaderwho was feeling suffocated in a party like TMC.

Trivedi is the fourth senior TMC leader to quit theruling party in West Bengal in the last two months afterSuvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, who had switched over tothe BJP and Laxmi Ratan Shukla, who had expressed his desireto quit politics.

This wass not the first time that Trivedi had openlyaired his grievances against the party. Earlier in March 2012,he had to step down as Railway Minister after Mamata Banerjee,who is also the TMC supremo, had opposed the railway budgetplaced by him.

He was replaced with the then TMC general secretaryMukul Roy.

Trivedi was also suspended from the party but waslater reinstated.

Resigning from the Rajya Sabha, he had said ''If yousit here quietly and cannot do anything, then it is betterthat you resign from here and go to the land of Bengal and bewith people.

''What I mean to say is the way violence is takingplace in our state. Sitting here, I am feeling perplexed as towhat should I do,'' he had added.