Kolkata: Former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, who had expressed desire to quit the BJP just weeks after coming into its fold, is “not leaving as of now,” senior party leader Mukul Roy said Tuesday.
Chatterjee a four-time TMC MLA, who joined the BJP August 14, wanted to part ways with the party for being “regularly humiliated,” his close associate Baishakhi Banerjee claimed Saturday.
The two had a marathon meeting with Roy at his residence in New Delhi Monday night, BJP sources said. “The party leadership had asked me to meet Sovan and Baisakhi, and we discussed a range of issues… There may have been some misunderstanding.
“Everything is sorted out, and I have made it clear that they are very much with the party (Banerjee had also joined the BJP along with Chatterjee). They will remain in the party as of now,” Roy told reporters Tuesday.
Chatterjee said he has discussed all the issues with “elder brother” Roy.
Banerjee Saturday had claimed that since joining the BJP, they were being “regularly humiliated and insulted without any reason.”
According to the sources in the saffron party, they had recently met BJP national general secretary and its Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya, expressing their desire to quit the party.
The two are understood to have been miffed over recent developments related to two-time TMC MLA Debashree Roy seeking to join the BJP.
Roy had also visited the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on August 14, following assurance by a senior state party leader that she could switch over to the saffron fold, but was met with opposition from Sovan, the sources said.
Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh has said he had no objection to Roy joining the party. Chatterjee, once a trusted aide of Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was asked to step down both as a minister in the TMC government and as Kolkata mayor in November last year, following troubles in his personal life.