New Delhi, June 9 (IANS) A day after he resigned from the Rajya Sabha as well as the Trinamool Congress, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said that the RG Kar rape and murder case was the “cracking point” for him, and he gauged that the public anger following the incident reflected that the party was going to lose the Assembly polls.

Speaking to reporters, Roy maintained that his decision was not influenced or pressured by anyone. “As the son of a freedom fighter, I acted according to my own conscience. I was neither coerced nor manipulated. It was my personal decision,” he said.

“I thought enough is enough. I was thinking of leaving the party for a long time now,” he added.

However, Roy expressed gratitude to the Trinamool leadership for giving him an opportunity to serve as a Rajya Sabha member.

“The party has a lot of good leaders, but then the sexual harassment cases started cropping up like the Park Street rape case, Kamduni gang rape and murder case and ultimately the RG Kar rape and murder,” he said.

He alleged that in several cases of sexual harassment, many of those involved were “sheltered by the Trinamool Congress and some were even party workers or associated with the party’s activities”.

“When such things happened, my friends and family started questioning why I was still a part of this party. Moreover, why should I be a part of their misdeeds? But I was waiting for an opportunity to resign, and then when the RG Kar incident happened, I took the decision (to quit the Trinamool).”

The former Trinamool MP mentioned that as a fallout of the RG Kar case, the same people who voted for the party in the Lok Sabha polls five months back had come out on the streets. “We (the party) should have thought that if the public could overthrow 34 years of the CPI-M-led Left regime and bring the Trinamool to power, then they can also remove us if we did not walk on the right path,” he said.

Moreover, Roy remarked that it is only a matter of a few months or a few years before the Trinamool Congress becomes a “part of history”.

“It will not survive in its present form. Many others in our party who felt marginalised also told us that they no longer wanted to remain. The public had signalled time and again, but the party did not take the corrective measures that were expected of it,” he added.

Roy noted that the BJP had to wait nearly 80 years to come to power in West Bengal.

“The people in the state did not have any other alternative other than the BJP. In the 34 years of the Left regime, followed by 15 years of the Trinamool’s rule, West Bengal has been turned into a desert. There is no investment, no measures to reduce unemployment, and education has been totally destroyed,” he said.

“In the health sector, a majority of fake medicines, saline and injections are being bought. I have demanded a forensic audit.”

“In such a situation, we have now been rendered powerless, and I finally submitted my resignation, both from the party and the Rajya Sabha,” he said.

Roy stated that he was not sure whether he will continue to remain in politics or not.

Meanwhile, praising the new BJP government, he said: “They have already begun work on the promises made in the manifesto.”

–IANS

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