India / BJP MP Saumitra Khan to send divorce notice to wife Sujata after she joins TMC

Kolkata: Minutes after wife Sujata Mondal Khan joined Trinamool Congress on Monday, BJP MP from Bishnupur Saumitra Khan described her decision as a “big mistake” and said he will soon send her a divorce notice.

Breaking down at press meet, Khan, who is also Bengal BJP Yuva Morcha President, said, “I give you full freedom. This is my appeal to you to remove my surname ‘Khan’ from your name,” Reminding her of the difficulties posed by the TMC, he said, “They cut your power supply, there were threats of attack on you… Your job was snatched by Mamata Banerjee or Abhishek Banerjee. At that point of your life, I kept the promise I made to you –– transferred 50% of my salary to your account every month… so that you don’t have to ask for it… Now you have joined hands with those who had harmed you in past.”

He stressed that without BJP, he was no one. And had she not been his wife, nobody would have known her either. “BJP has given me all recognition. I am obliged that you have campaigned for me in the past, but it is also true that I wouldn’t have won the seat without BJP’s name,” he said. “Every family has its fights. But, you have chosen politics over family to feed you high ambitions. You have been trapped and it is your big mistake,” he added.

Sujata was welcomed into the TMC by senior party leader and MP Saugata Roy in Kolkata. When asked about Saumitra Khan, Sujata said, “Family and politics can’t be on same platform, so let’s not talk on those lines. It’s my decision today and who guarantees that Saumitra Khan won’t join me in future?”

Sujata, who had campaigned for her husband ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls after he was barred by the court from entering Bankura, said she loves challenges and does not want to work for a party that has no face for Assembly elections. She further criticised BJP’s organisational strategies, saying, “They have six names standing in pipeline for the CM post and 13 are in waiting list for the deputy CM seat. When I was in BJP and people would ask who is your face for CM, I had to say Modi. Till Lok Sabha elections it was fine, but BJP has failed to find a face in Bengal for its party.”

In a veiled reference to TMC turncoat Suvendu Adhikari, “I am not an opportunist like others. I was with the BJP when it was zero and gifted them a difficult seat like Bishnupur. Now, the same party is giving importance to corrupt leaders rejected by the TMC, and those who have fought for the party in difficult times have been sidelined,” she said.

Adhikari, a former TMC heavyweight, crossed over to the saffron camp along with 23 others in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday. Inducting them into the party fold, Shah had claimed that there will be more desertions to the BJP from the TMC and that the Chief Minister will be left alone in her party by the time elections arrive. “By the time elections arrive, Mamata Banerjee will be left alone in her party,” Shah said while taking potshots at the TMC over a string of desertions ahead of next year’s Assembly elections for 294 seats.