NEW DELHI: Former TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi on Saturday joined the BJP in the presence of party president JP Nadda and Union minister Piyush Goyal.
“This is the golden moment for me, for which I have been waiting for a long time. Nadda ji and my friends knew I was waiting for this. I never left ideology. The nation was above everything for me. Every person believes that PM Narendra Modi and BJP will keep the nation secure,” Trivedi said.
Responding to whether he will be fighting elections, Trivedi said he will be active in the election process, irrespective of whether he contests or not.
“Bengal has rejected TMC. They want progress, not corruption or violence. They’re ready for real change. Politics isn’t ‘khela’, it’s serious. She (CM) forgot her ideals while playing,”Trivedi added.
BJP president J P Nadda too congratulated the former railway minister on joining BJP. “Dinesh Trivedi was right person in wrong party, now he is in right party,” said Nadda.
Trivedi had resigned as an MP on February 12 during the Budget session of Parliament, saying he was “feeling stifled” and his “conscience” told him to resign as MP and “go and work for the people of Bengal and India”.
“I am resigning from Rajya Sabha today. There is violence happening in my state. We cannot speak anything here.” the TMC leader had said while announcing his resignation on the floor of the Upper House.
Without naming Prashant Kishor, Mamata’s poll strategist, Trivedi had alluded to his growing role in the party as one of the reasons for his exit.
“When the party goes into the hands of a corporate professional, he is running the party… somebody does not know the ABC of politics, he is becoming my neta. So what can people do in such a situation?,” Trivedi had said.
Trivedi had a fractious relationship with Trinamool after he was asked to step down as the railway minister in March 2012. Trivedi, who succeeded Mamata in the ministry in UPA-2, had proposed a hike in train fare, which Mamata had dubbed as “anti-people”.