Devasish Jana, former councillor of Ward 34 who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday, claimed to have felt “shock” and “insult” at his assistant being asked to vacate the room assigned to him at Poura Bhavan and the room being locked on Tuesday.

“People would say this is a fishy reason and he meant to switch anyway. But once you throw a stone that doesn’t come back,” the four-time councillor, who was with Trinamul Congress since 1998, told The Telegraph Salt Lake on Wednesday morning. He had not yet made up his mind about his next step, he had said then. He was handed the party flag by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh later in the afternoon.

Jana, who was a mayor-in-council member in the Trinamul Congress-run Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, resigned from his post on Tuesday in the Board of Administrators (BOA) which is running the civic body after the board's term ended last October.

Devasish Jana

Jana told The Telegraph Salt Lake that his Trinamul colleagues had started treating him differently as he was known to be close to Suvendu Adhikari, the former transport minister who shifted to the BJP in December. “My native place is in Tamluk. We are from the same district. He attends social occasions in my family. But there were insinuations about my proximity with him. Tyara chokhe takay tia…,” he said, quoting a nursery song.

Jana said he used to attend the Corporation regularly and was in office till Monday. But the incident on Tuesday was the proverbial last straw. “I was given a room as a member of the BOA. On Monday, I learnt that my official work assistant, who received documents addressed to me in my absence, had been asked to vacate the room which was then locked. She was told to sit outside. It is an insult to me,” he said.

Jana said he was “shocked” by the incident. “I resigned at 4pm yesterday, sending my letter to the municipal affairs department, with a copy to the BMC municipal commissioner so that the chairperson (Krishna Chakraborty) gets to know. No one has called me since then,” he said.

Jana claimed Adhikari had “never interfered” in his decision. “He must have got to know of my resignation from the grapevine,” he said.

Counterpoint

Though former mayor and BOA chairperson Krishna Chakraborty did not respond to calls from The Telegraph Salt Lake on Wednesday night, former deputy mayor Tapas Chatterjee lashed out at his former colleague. “If some incident happens, does that mean I take the extreme step straight away? Is there no ideology left in politics? I may have some grievances but that should be raised in the right forum. It does not mean I go and join a communal party!” he said, recalling how he himself was left without a portfolio by the erstwhile mayor Sabyasachi Dutta for six months.

Chatterjee said he learnt of Jana’s resignation from BOA in the media and called him on Wednesday morning. “I offered to raise the matter with him with the chairperson or even speak to Bobby (minister Firhad Hakim). Who knew he would join the BJP in a few hours?”

He claimed the decision to lock rooms was an administrative one taken by officials. “Even my room was being locked but I called the finance officer and asked that my assistant be allowed to use it. The matter ended there. Why did he not do the same? This cannot be the only reason for quitting the party.”