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West Bengal minister Bachchu Hansda, TMC MLA Gouri Sankar Dutta join BJP
Both of them were denied nominations for the upcoming assembly polls by the TMC.
Continuing the trend of an exodus from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, two more senior leaders of the party switched camps to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday.
West Bengal minister Bachchu Hansda and Tehatta MLA Gouri Sankar Dutta joined the BJP on this day. Notably, both of them were denied nominations for the upcoming assembly polls by the TMC.
For a bit of context, Bachchu Hansda commanded much local renown in Tapan, the assembly constituency in the Dakshin Dinajpur district of West Bengal, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.
Hansda, the Minister of State for North Bengal Development, had won the constituency for the TMC in both the previous assembly elections, defeating RSP's Khara Soren by a margin of 18,657 votes in 2011 and RSP's Urow Raghu by 4,401 votes in 2016.
Political commentators presume that seeds of dissent were sown when the two-time MLA was not provided with a ticket for the upcoming assembly polls.
It was reported that after Trinamool's nomination list was made public, Bachchu Hansda met with BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy, following which TMC immediately sent its Rajya Sabha MP Arpita Ghosh to address any potential grievances that Hansda might have had.
However, ending all talks of reconciliation, Bachchu Hansda finally joined the BJP today, in the presence of its state president Dilip Ghosh.
Besides the aforementioned leaders, Bengali actors Bonny Sengupta and Rajshree Rajbonshi have also joined the saffron party on this day. Sengupta's close friend and actor Koushani Mukherjee had recently joined the TMC and is a candidate from the Krishnanagar Uttar seat.
TMC MP Pratima Mandal's younger sister Jayanti also joined the BJP.
Councillors of various municipalities and district- level leaders of TMC also switched sides with Dilip Ghosh handing them the party flag.
Earlier this week, five TMC legislators, including four-time Satgachia MLA Sonali Guha and 89-year-old Singur MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya, had switched over to the BJP after they were dropped by the ruling party from its candidate list.
A total of 26 TMC MLAs and two MPs have switched over to the BJP since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
However, except for the former state ministers Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, and Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi none of them gave up their memberships of assembly or Parliament.
(With inputs from agencies)
