West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed her lieutenant Mukul Roy has distanced himself from her due to “pressure” and “harassment” from the BJP.
For long considered the second-in-command of Ms. Banerjee’s Trinamool and credited as the architect of its electoral successes, Mr. Roy was grilled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in January last year, in connection with the Saradha scam.
“BJP disturbed Mukul, we did not. This is not right. He was harassed politically,” Ms. Banerjee told a television channel on Friday when quizzed about the reasons for the temporary snapping of ties between Mr. Roy and the TMC.
However, Ms. Banerjee denied there was any major parting of ways.
“There was no parting of ways. Because of the way they mentally pressurised him, he distanced himself [from Trinamool]. But there were no major differences,” she said.
Mr. Roy, a former Railway Minister, was stripped of all his party posts.
