Kunal mislead barb at Mukul

Kunal Ghosh

TT, Calcutta, Oct. 12: Suspended Trinamul Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh today attacked Mukul Roy for an alleged attempt to misguide the people regarding his reasons for quitting the party, but like Roy, he steered clear of directly attacking Mamata Banerjee.

A day after Roy resigned from the upper House and severed ties with Trinamul, Ghosh accused him of trying to compromise the probes into the Saradha and Narada cases.

"Standing next to Mamata Banerjee on August 9, Roy had made a case for her political slogan of 'BJP, Quit India', over how communal the party is. On October 11, he held a news conference asserting that it is not communal. This is misleading," said Ghosh, who spent over two years in jail in connection with the Saradha case.

Yesterday, Roy did not make any commitment towards joining another party, but lent his weight behind the BJP-RSS parivar. He also criticised dynasty politics, single leader-based parties and Trinamul's decision of choosing political bedfellows.

"This happened after (Congress vice-president) Rahul Gandhi refused to accept him into his party. Had Congress been willing to take him, Roy would have criticised the BJP instead," said Ghosh.

Later, when Roy was asked in Delhi to comment on Ghosh's remarks, he said he would not react to the "ramblings" of a "frustrated mind".

Roy, who has sought an appointment with senior officials of the Election Commission of India, said he did not plan to float a new political party. Instead, he said, he would like to offer information to the poll panel on ways to conduct free, fair and peaceful elections in Bengal.

"Bypolls to a couple of Assembly seats in Bengal will be held in November.... I would like to give my suggestions so that elections in Bengal are held like they were in 2009 and 2011," he said.