Kolkata
Hours after BJP leader Sovan Chatterjee’s name was included on the state executive committee list of the 110 permanent invitees on Tuesday, speculations were rife if the former mayor has been firm on not to return to his former party. Rumours were Chatterjee was in talks with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) camp following which senior BJP leader Arvind Menon met the former mayor in August-end. Other senior BJP leaders are said to be in constant touch with the former TMC leader.
Chatterjee, however, has not played an active role in politics after joining BJP along with friend Baishakhi Bandhopadhyay. The uneasiness within the BJP began when Chatterjee’s formal induction was conducted at the BJP party office in Kolkata in media presence while Bandhopadhyay was not part. Chatterjee switched loyalty from TMC to BJP in August lasy year, months after he was asked to step down as mayor and give up other ministerial portfolios of Housing, Fire and Emergency Services in West Bengal.
Things have been uncertain ever since the duo’s induction into the BJP, with Chatterjee hoping he would get a bigger share as a senior leader holding important ministerial posts and being the mayor while in TMC. Ahead of the lockdown, posters of Chatterjee alongside TMC’s mayoral candidate Firhad Hakkim were put up to take on former party in the KMC poll, scheduled in May.