In yet another defection, Arindam Bhattacharya, Trinamool Congress MLA from Santipur in West Bengal’s Nadia district, on Wednesday joined the BJP in its headquarters in New Delhi in the presence of national general secretary Kaliash Vijayvargiya and other leaders.
Mr. Bhattacharya was elected in 2016 on the Congress ticket, and in a year, he joined the Trinamool Congress.
The MLA said he was not allowed to work freely and the Trinamool Congress government had failed to bring in any industrialisation. “For me,the most important issue is the welfare of the people of my constituency and I believe that the BJP can bring in that development,” he stated.
As per the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had a lead of over 30,000 votes in the constituency, and many in the political circles feel that Mr. Bhattacharya is keen to contest from the same constituency as the BJP nominee.
“We had made mistakes in recognising a few people. For us these people leaving are good riddance,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.
Series of defections
The defection of Mr. Bhattacharya is one of a series of defections which the TMC had to grapple in the past few months. In December, almost half a dozen of its MLAs joined the BJP along with party heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari.
The Trinamool Congress leadership is desperately trying to keep its flock together and has been able to placate its Lok Sabha members Prasun Banerjee and Satabdi Roy. MLAs, however, are leaving the party before the Assembly elections, which is scheduled in the next few months.
The Trinamool Congress leadership on Wednesday wrote to Mihir Goswami, MLA from Coochbehar Dakhin, who recently joined the BJP, to clear his political stand.
During the day, MLA from Uttarapara in Hooghly district Prabir Kumar Ghosal also expressed resentment against the party leadership and accused a section of party members of hatching a conspiracy to defeat him in the coming polls.
The State BJP leadership wasted little time urging Mr. Ghosal to join the party.
