Rebellious Trinamul Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari is likely to join the BJP during or after a visit to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah this week, sources close to the dissident said on Tuesday.

Sources said Adhikari, who turned 50 on Tuesday, would resign as Trinamul member and its Nandigram MLA over the next couple of days and leave for Delhi on Thursday.

“In Delhi, he (Adhikari) is likely to meet Modiji and Amitji, besides some others in the topmost tier of the BJP leadership. He might join the BJP in Delhi on Friday itself. Or, he might return with Amitji and join in the mega rally of the BJP in Midnapore on Saturday,” said a source, hours after a public appearance by the East Midnapore leader in yet another “apolitical” event at Haldia, where he was bitterly sarcastic — albeit anonymously — towards Trinamul and its leadership.

“His mind is made up. He cannot stay in Trinamul anymore. There have been generous offers from elsewhere, such as the Congress, but he is going to the BJP,” added the source, pointing out that the Centre had already granted Z cover security to Adhikari.

Sources in the Union home ministry corroborated the claim.

“The ministry has granted him Z category security after assessing his threat perception. He is likely to get either Central Reserve Police Force or Central Industrial Security

Force cover comprising 20 security personnel,” said a ministry official.
When he resigned as minister last month, Adhikari gave up the Z-category security given by the state home department under chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The fact that Adhikari is all set to up the ante on chief minister Mamata Banerjee became clear on Tuesday as he attacked the Trinamul chief — without naming her — over her bohiragawto (outsider) leitmotif against the BJP.

“We are Indians first, then Bengalis,” he told an event attended by over 10,000 people in Haldia to commemorate freedom fighter Satish Chandra Samanta’s birth anniversary.

“Satish Chandra Samanta (a five-term MP from Tamluk, for the Congress and the Bangla Congress) never thought of Jawaharlal Nehru as a bohiragawto. Nehru never thought of Samanta as a non-Hindi speaker. There was mutual respect. That is what India is,” he added.

A senior Trinamul MP said with this rebuttal, Adhikari tried discrediting a core theme of Mamata’s anti-BJP campaign. The Trinamul chief has repeatedly been accusing the saffron camp of trying to break the very backbone of Bengali culture, prompting eager attempts by the BJP to substantiate its Bengal connect.

Adhikari also took on Trinamul over its alleged hegemonism.

“For the people, by the people, of the people… this the Constitution has said. This has to be brought back to Bengal…. For the party, of the party, by the party… why should this system prevail?” the rebel leader asked, adding that he had never been in greed for posts and had toiled for the masses all his life.

“Nandigram was a mass movement. It did not belong to a party. It did not belong to a person. It belonged to the people…. Like the Independence movement against the British…. In Nandigram, the people won,” said Adhikari on Tuesday.

In north Bengal on Tuesday, the Trinamul chief lambasted Adhikari. However, she, too, did not name him.

“There is no need for making comparisons to see who is bigger…. Thriving for 10 years in the party in power, thriving for 10 years in the government, taking it all, then looking to tie up with others when the elections approach… this opportunism, I will not tolerate. Keep this in mind,” said Mamata, who has considered Adhikari “a closed chapter” for weeks.

Adhikari, speaking earlier in the day, said he did not believe in personal attacks.

“There have been some attacking me personally. They occupy major posts…. Remember this, when the people go to the jute cubicles (voting enclosure in booths) in a few months, they will respond to you with their fingers, aimed at a specific button (on the electronic voting machines),” he said, apparently suggesting a Trinamul defeat.

BJP national general-secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, the party's Bengal minder, said he called up Adhikari to wish him on his birthday.