Rift in Bengal BJP? Mukul Roy, Rajib Banerjee skip BJP's internal meet on 'post-poll violence'

New Delhi, June 08: The rift in the West Bengal unit of the BJP was out in the open on Tuesday as BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and BJP leader Rajib Banerjee remained absent from the saffron camp's internal meeting on ''post-poll violence''.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari wasn''t present at the session as he is away in Delhi to meet Home Minister Amit Shah and party''s national president J P Nadda.

Banerjee, who had walked out of the TMC ahead of Assembly polls earlier in the year, seem to have mellowed after the saffron party's drubbing, as he took to social media on Tuesday to say that "people will not take kindly to threats of President's rule against a government elected with a huge mandate".

Banerjee, after quitting the TMC in January, had claimed that he was forced to do so as a section of party leaders "humiliated him for airing his grievances over their style of functioning".

The former state minister, who skipped a meeting of the state BJP leadership during the day over post-poll violence, said everyone should rise above politics and stand beside the people of the state, amid the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and cyclone Yaas.

Several TMC turncoats have, over the past few weeks, expressed their willingness to rejoin the Mamata Banerjee camp -- prominent among them being former MLAs Sonali Guha and Dipendu Biswas.

Some others have also been reportedly sending feelers to the party leadership, hoping to return.

With TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee recently visiting senior BJP leader Mukul Roy's ailing wife in hospital, speculation is rife about a possible change in equation between them.

Roy, once the national general secretary of the TMC - a post currently held by Abhishek -- joined the BJP in 2017.

He was conspicuous by his absence in Tuesday's meeting called by the state BJP leadership.