Rafiqul Islam, a sitting Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA from Basirhat Uttar in North 24 Parganas, returned to the Trinamool Congress on Friday in the presence senior leaders Aroop Biswas and Sadhan Pandey.
Mr. Islam had switched from Trinamool Congress to CPI(M) before the 2016 Assembly elections.
After joining the Trinamool on Friday, Mr. Islam said only this party can defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in next year’s Assembly polls.
A number of MLA of the Left parties and Congress have joined the ruling Trinamool Congress in the past five years. The trend of shifting political loyalties, which was quite alien to the State, started in 2011. Since then dozens of MLAs of Left parties and Congress have joined the State’s ruling party.
Protest over custodial death
In another significant political development BJP MP Locket Chatterjee held protests in Kolkata over the alleged custodial death of BJP worker Madan Ghorui. BJP supporters held protests on Central Avenue with the body of the party worker demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the matter.
The BJP worker from Purba Medinipur was arrested by police and died on Thursday. The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered a second post mortem of the body. The court’s directive came on a plea filed by the state BJP, which alleged foul play behind Madan Ghorui’s death and claimed that he had died in police custody.
