Roy arrives to a rousing welcome in Kolkata

Mukul Roy arrived in Kolkata on Monday from New Delhi to a rousing welcome by BJP workers and supporters.

Roy joined the BJP three days ago after switching over from the Trinamool Congress.

A large number of Roy's supporters and BJP activists had gathered at the party's state headquarters in central Kolkata to greet Roy, who accused the Trinamool of failing to live up to the people's expectations and aspirations.

Scotching speculations that the state BJP leadership under its president Dilip Ghosh will find it difficult to accommodate a leader of the stature of Roy, the former close aide of Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee, said: "At the national level, we will be fighting under the leadership of Amit Shah and in Bengal, we will fight under the captaincy of Dilip Ghosh. People in Bengal are fed up and change is inevitable."

Sounding confident of decisive wins in the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, Roy said, "In Bengal, we fought for a change from the Left Front's misrule. But that has not been achieved. Only a few have access to the fruits of change. People now want a real change and the BJP is the only alternative. The party will surely come to power in Bengal and in Odisha."

To a question on how he will fight the Trinamool leaders who were his close associates, Roy said: "We all know what happened in Mahabharata. The Pandavas had to fight against their own brothers, the Kauravas, for truth and justice. I will address our party workers and explain my position further at a BJP rally on November 10."

DH News Service