New Delhi: An advertorial by the Yogi Adityanath government has resulted in a controversy as it featured a photo of a Kolkata flyover in it. Leader Mukul Roy, who joined the TMC from BJP, hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that he is helpless to save his party and is showing Bengal's picture of development as their own.
On the other hand, Yogi government officials say it is an advertorial and not an advertisement. They contended that the page was designed and printed by the newspaper. The publication has also claimed responsibility for the gaffe and said that the advertorial has been removed from the newpaper's digital editions.
TMC leader Mukul Roy tweeted, "Shri Narendra Modi is so helpless to save his party that apart from changing CM, he has also had to resort to development and infrastructure photographs."
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh also shared the picture and said, "Such development would not have been heard or seen. Our CM Adityanath ji brought the flyover from Calcutta to Lucknow. Even though it is done in the ad, it is at least done".
Mukul Roy resigned from the TMC in September 2017 and joined BJP two months later. He was then made the national vice president of the BJP in September 2020. When he won Krishnanagar north seat in Nadia district, his son Subhranshu, who joined the party in May 2019, lost from Bijpur seat from where he was the sitting MLA.
On May 2, the TMC won a decisive victory in the West Bengal assembly elections by winning 213 seats, while the BJP managed to win only 77 constituencies.
Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari started speculating about Mukul Roy's political future after beating him as leader of the opposition. Roy's son then sparked controversy on social media by writing that people should introspect rather than criticising the government that came to power with the support of the people. Finally, Roy and his son rejoined the TMC on June 11 in the presence of CM Mamata Banerjee and her nephew.