Tanmoy Ghosh, BJP MLA from Bishnupur in Bankura, West Bengal, rejoined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday. He won the recent polls with a margin of about 11,420 votes. He joined the BJP from the TMC in March last.
With this, the number of BJP MLAs has come down to 73. Seventy-seven of the party won in the polls. Party MPs Jaganath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik, who contested and won the elections, did not take oath as MLAs.
Mr. Ghosh, who joined the Trinamool Congress in the presence of senior leader and Education Minister Bratya Basu, said the BJP was trying to snatch away the rights of Bengalis and malign the culture of the State. His decision to join the TMC was also in protest against the use of Central agencies as a tool of “political vendetta”.
Mr. Basu said , “I will tell the BJP leadership that the attempts to control West Bengal and Bengalis from Delhi and Gujarat is not going well even among those in the party”.
The TMC won 213 seats by securing about 48% of the total votes. The BJP’s vote share was about 38%.
In June last, Mukul Roy, who was elected from Krishnagar Uttar on BJP ticket, rejoined the TMC.
On Sunday, former MLA Sikha Mitra, also the wife of former Congress president late Somendranath Mitra, returned to the Trinamool Congress.
Defections of MLAs from Opposition parties to the ruling party has been a regular phenomenon in West Bengal politics since 2011. Dozens of legislators from the Congress and a few from the Left parties joined the Trinamool Congress in the first two terms of the government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In the months leading to the recent polls, several from the TMC joined the BJP.
