Kolkata: Barely within three months of defecting to the BJP from the Trinamul, heavyweight Behala East MLA Sovan Chatterjee on Tuesday afternoon met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee making clear about his comeback to her party. His move has left the BJP in a tight spot.
At around 1.30 pm, Chatterjee and his close friend, Baishakhi Banerjee, who also joined the BJP alongwith him in New Delhi on August 14, visited the Trinamul supremo at her residence on the occasion of Bhatridwitiya.
The former Kolkata mayor, who is called by the CM as ‘Kanon’, took Bhai Phonta from her unlike the previous year when distance had grown between them. He also sought her blessings this time. A popular face in the Trinamul chief’s circle, Chatterjee was conspicuous by his absence also at her family’s Kali Puja last year.
This was the first meeting between them after a gap of nearly a year. In November last year he quit from Banerjee’s cabinet and also resigned from the Kolkata mayor’s post following the Trinamul chief’s order.
Although Chatterjee later joined the BJP, the Trinamul did not take action against him and kept sending its senior leaders to him for talks from time to time to ensure his return to the party. Meanwhile Chatterjee and Baishakhi started claiming that they were being humiliated by state BJP leadership.
