Both TMC leaders and, to a lesser extent Roy’s supporters, have resorted to avoidable hyperbole talking about the future. The hyperactive tech savvy TMC chatteratti lost no time ripping into their ex-leader, friend and colleague --- a sharp reminder of the dog eat dog culture that passes for internal party discipline these days. Their loyalty to party supremo Mamata Banerjee was touching: Bengal Minister Sobhandeb Chatterjee said, “Removing a cup of water from the sea makes no difference to anyone!”

TMC Secretary and minister Partha Chatterjee set the tone in attacking Roy politically and spared no opportunity to cut him down to size. Like Sobhandeb, he also wallowed in unconscious self-abasement saying, “In our party there is only one face, one vote winner ---Mamata Banerjee. No one else counts.”

In comparison, state BJP leaders were less effusive about Roy’s entry into their club. Their enthusiasm hardly matched that of their central leaders, like Kailash Vijaybargiya or Ravi Shankar Prasad. The reason: neither state party president Dilip Ghosh nor his predecessor Rahul Sinha can bring to the table what Roy can.

The path Roy took to enter the BJP”s headquarters was not exactly paved with roses. There is reason to believe that his eventual access to the party’s Ashoka Road HQ was delayed because of niggling differences between the central and state leaders of the BJP.

The latter were obviously disconcerted by the attention Roy was receiving at the top levels of the party. They pointed to his involvement with the Sarada chit fund and the Narada bribery scams as well as his inability to bring in too many followers to join the saffron camp in his trail and his recent loss of influence within the TMC.

More importantly, their reaction was akin to that of smaller animals when a larger creature moves into their patch of grass: in what capacity would Roy be operating within the state BJP and how many of the present, obviously second rate, state leaders would he marginalise?

BJP insiders admit that the replies they got from their Delhi HQ did not please them. From Vijaybargiya to Siddharthnath Singh to Amit Shah, no one was convinced that any of the state leaders were capable of even making the BJP organisationally stronger. Challenging the Mamata-led TMC was a more distant dream.

Repeatedly, central leaders only advised the state party to become more active, face more risks, fight the TMC harder on the ground, create a firmer support base, reach out to the people more--- they might as well have circulated Churchill’s blood, sweat and tears message of World War II to the Brits among Bengal BJP workers.

While Roy would have his work cut out to make himself acceptable to the BJP at the state level, there is no doubt that he leaves the TMC leaders deeply worried about his next moves. For all the sycophantic rant about teacups and the oceans, no one within the TMC knows its organisantional structure, its hidden strengths and weaknesses, like him.

As one of his close associates puts it, “He knows the party organisation, its mass bodies, from top to the bottom; he is on a first name basis with more members, booth workers and supporters than even Mamata!” This is Roy’s constituency within the TMC and it is a formidable strength for any leader, in power or as a dissident.

Other TMC sources say that among many party leaders and seniors, there is much suppressed resentment over the sudden elevation of Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek, seen as part of a campaign to make him the heir apparent. Roy is best placed than most TMC leaders to enjoy their trust. During the past few months, Roy has steadily worked his way among these people, from the booth level to the TMC ministry.

Aware of what was happening, Mamata and Abhishek have reshuffled the party structure in many districts, obviously sidelining people perceived to be Roy loyalists. In the process there has been more unrest and resentment within the TMC that new leaders cannot handle, for they do not know the ropes like Roy.

Significantly, during the last few months, there has been hardly any major or even minor defections to the TMC of demoralised people from the Cong(I), the Left Front or the BJP. The reason; Roy is no more active on behalf of the TMC. During his time as the TMC vice president, he induced scores of second tier leaders and hundreds of activists from other parties to join the TMC. His critics allege that he used money power and other blandishments to do this.

“But the outcome was to strengthen the TMC, as the opposition parties suddenly found themselves without either promising leaders or committed workers at the grassroots. Why do you think the opposition finds it so very difficult to launch and sustain a single agitation in Bengal today, during the TMC’s tenure?” asks a Kolkata corporator. He even suspects Roy’s hand in the sudden spurt in violence among TMC ranks in recent weeks, which even the state police cannot apparently control.
Long story short, it is hard to defend Roy’s tactics and methods in building up his own career and that of his former party, the TMC. They smack too strongly of a Machiavellian political culture that puts more stress on ends rather than means.

More than any assessment of Roy’s persona, the larger question is whether the TMC has any moral authority to condemn him now, having used him so thoroughly all these years. The TMC is hoist on its own petard. (IPA Service)