After Mukul Roy starts 'talking to people', BJP says no MLAs will quit; Guv leaves for Delhi

(Eds: Adding fresh inputs, collating stories) Kolkata, Jun 15 (PTI) A day after 51 of the 75 BJP MLAs of West Bengal met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on the alleged deterioration of law and order in the state, Mukul Roy who returned to the TMC recently said on Tuesday he is "talking to several people", prompting the saffron party to declare that none of its lawmakers would follow him.

The governor, who accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of being silent over post-poll violence in the state and of not taking steps to rehabilitate suffering people", said that he is embarking on a four-day visit to New Delhi but did not cite any reason for the trip.

The Trinanmool Congress (TMC) government also hit back at Dhankhar claiming that the contents of his letter to the chief minister are not consistent with fact.

TMC spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy claimed that the governor has been launching tirades against the state government almost every day and he is "trying to convey a view that as if a war is going on in Bengal like that between Palestine and Israel".

The TMC MP alleged that Dhankhar's attempt to create a "make-believe situation" that the law and order situation has deteriorated in the state is part of a "specific plan".

The party spokesperson had on Monday taken a dig at the BJP, questioning why only 51 out of a total 75 MLAs had gone to the governor to give a representation on the law and order situation.

The BJP, which had won 77 seats in the election to the 294-seat assembly, now has 75 MLAs following the resignation of two - Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar - who are also Lok Sabha MPs. Mukul Roy is included in the list of 75 since he is officially a BJP MLA.

Mukul Roy, who returned to the TMC after a three-and- a-half-year stint in the saffron party, told reporters that he was talking to many people.

Asked whether he was holding parleys with BJP MLAs and other leaders on joining the TMC, he said "talks are on with several people." A number of TMC MLAs including ministers and other leaders had joined the BJP ahead of the assembly election and a section of them have sent feelers that they want to return to their old party.

After 51 of the 75 BJP legislators signed the representation to the governor fuelling speculations over the next move of the remaining 24 MLAs, the party's state unit president Dilip Ghosh denied the possibility of any of them switching over to the TMC.

Ghosh said that a limited number of party MLAs were asked to join the delegation to the governor owing to COVID regulations.

"Initially, 31 MLAs were scheduled to go but 51 had turned up," he told a press conference at the BJP party office here.

He asserted that there is no apprehension of any BJP MLA switching over to the TMC.

"No one will go," Ghosh said.

Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP, led a delegation of 51 BJP MLAs to the governor on Monday to seek his intervention over alleged lawlessness and "partisan stance" of the police.

Following the meeting, Dhankhar tweeted that Adhikari called on him and submitted a representation regarding the alleged alarming law and order situation in the state.

"Over 50 Opposition MLAs expressed serious concern at lawlessness @MamataOfficial and partisan stance @WBPolice @KolkataPolice and sought intervention" of the governor, claiming that "the situation was sliding," the governor said in a Twitter post.

"Governor assured the MLAs and LOP @SuvenduWB that he will look into grievances of which he is aware," the tweet message said.

Hours before his departure to Delhi, the governor wrote to the chief minister seeking an interaction with her at the earliest on issues flagged by him.

Dhankhar, who has been at loggerheads with the Trinamool Congress government in the state on several issues since taking over in July 2019, also accused the police and administration in the state of being partisan.

The governor wrote that during his May 13 to 15 visit to Coochbehar, Nandigram and Ranpagli in Assam, he had listened to heartrending tales of sufferings of people in post-poll violence for voting as per their choice in the West Bengal assembly elections.

The state government, however, said that the governors letter to the chief minister over post-poll violence in the state was not consistent with "real facts".

In a series of tweets, the state Home Department criticised the letter that was shared by Dhankhar on Twitter, claiming that it was violative of all established norms.

Rejecting the allegations made by him, the Home Department said that post-poll violence took place when the Election Commission was in charge of law and order in the state. PTI AMR SCH NN NN