Nandigram shows red card to Mukul Roy

NANDIGRAM/ KOLKATA: Mukul Roy had Trinamool’s Haldia MLA Sheuli Saha by his side to show him the way. Yet Nandigram remained unfriendly to this Trinamool MP like it was when the CM was in government. The organisers of the Nandigram, now mainly with the Trinamool, made it quite apparent on Saturday that they don’t recognise Mukul minus Mamata Banerjee.
While leaving, Mukul Roy recalled how he accompanied BJP leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Sushma Swaraj who had come to Nandigram after the carnage on March 14, 2007. “None of the UPA leaders bothered to take our calls when frantically tried to get in touch with them. It was Advaniji who called Mamata then to get the details of the Nandigram killings. I have been visiting Nandigram since then,” Roy said.
Even a host of MLAs and party leaders — Akhil Giri from Ramnagar, Amiya Bhattacharya from Chandipur, Soumen Mahapatra from Tamluk, Samaresh Das from Egra — whom Mukul Roy had handpicked to corner Trinamool’s Tamluk MP Subhendu Adhikari, gave him a miss on a day Mukul needed them the most.
The chasm between the rebel Trinamool MP and his party became wide open on Saturday when Mukul Roy’s convoy was stopped by BUPC men at all the three points to Bhangabera while the MP desperately tried to reach the programme on the Martyr’s Day to claim a stake in the Nandigram stir that rocked the Left Front government.
Mukul’s convoy first faced the BUPC ire on their way to Bhangabera from Chandipur. While on the way, at around 10 am, the Trinamool MP got the news that BUPC men had assembled at Tengua Bazar with “Go Back Mukul Roy” posters. Roy sent his assistant Gouranga Hazra to do a recce of the spot This was the spot that Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee has crossed past minutes ago on his way to the Martyr’s Day programme.
Sensing trouble, Trinamool MLA Sheuli Saha, who hails from Nandigram, escorted Mukul to Henria to enter Khejuri crossing Tekhali bridge. There were a handful near Tekhali bridge at 12 noon. They didn’t carry placards but wouldn’t allow Mukul to cross the bridge. In the melee, Sheuli got down from her car and tried to convince the locals to make way for Mukul. It didn’t work. Instead, there were a scuffle and the Trinamool MP had to beat a retreat leaving Sheuli on the spot. Angry locals barracked the Trinamool MLA hurled abuses at her and finally smashed the rear wind screen of her car. The Trinamool MLA could clear her passage half an hour later and caught up Mukul Roy near Chandipur.
The Trinamool MP didn’t give up. He took the third route trying to access the programme venue via Bhangabera bridge. But the BUPC members wouldn’t let him go. Khokon Shit, the man who was alleged to have Maoist connections during the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee regime, stood in the way along with five others. They shouted slogans, abused Mukul Roy, so much so that the Trinamool MP couldn’t even get down from his car. Roy’s convoy then drove straight to the Gandhi statue in Kolkata.
The Trinamool MP was shocked with the treatment he got from a section of the organisers. “I was with the people of Nandigram right from the outset. I was the first to have reached Nandigram with the NDA team. I believe that Subhendu Adhikari isn’t aware of what some of these people did to me today,” Roy said. Sheuli Saha, however, refused to buy the argument. “I intimated Subhenduda about Mukul Roy’s itinenary the day before. He told me that it wouldn’t be a problem,” Saha said.
Trinamool leaders on the dais — Partha Chatterjee, Sisir Adhikari, Subhendu Adhikari, Firhad Hakim — didn’t take notice of Mukul Roy. “I don’t know when he came and left Nandigram,” said Chatterjee. Trinamool insiders described the resistance to Mukul Roy on Saturday as a “sweet revenge” by Subhendu Adhikari against the former’s effort to corner Subhendu when he was at the helm.