Sovan Chatterjee has sent a message to central BJP leaders hinting at plans to quit the party, close associate Baishakhi Banerjee said on Saturday.

The disclosure came amid questions on the factors that prompted the former Calcutta mayor and Trinamul leader to switch to the saffron camp and then threaten a rethink in just 16 days.

Banerjee, with whom Chatterjee had defected to the BJP on August 14, said both feel “humiliated” in the new party and neither saw any point in continuing with the “association”.

“Since joining the BJP, we have been humiliated and insulted on a regular basis without any apparent reason…. Our new party seems to have stepped into the shoes of our old party. I do not see, Sovanbabu does not either, any reason to stay on. We are both willing to be formally relieved of this new association. I believe he has made himself clear in a message to the central leadership,” said Banerjee.

Chatterjee, who was to appear on Saturday before the CBI in Calcutta in connection with the Narada “sting” probe, went to Delhi instead. Sources close to him said the summons by the central agency had “shocked” him as it came after he had joined the BJP. He had gone to Delhi to sense the mood of the party’s central leaders, the sources said. Chatterjee’s cellphone was “unreachable”.

BJP sources said Chatterjee was unhappy with reports that Trinamul MLA Debasree Roy was going to be inducted into the BJP. Prior to Banerjee, actor-turned-politician Roy — the Raidighi legislator — was known as Chatterjee’s close associate.