Kolkata: Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik, the three former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders who resigned from the Rajya Sabha in June, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kolkata on Thursday, and, within hours, were named the saffron party’s candidates for the Rajya Sabha bypolls from West Bengal.
The BJP’s Central Election Committee announced the names of Dev, Roy and Prakash Chik Baraik as its nominees for the July 24 Rajya Sabha bypolls, days after the Election Commission notified elections to the three Upper House seats vacated following their resignations from the TMC and the Rajya Sabha last month.
Earlier on Thursday evening, state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya inducted the trio into the party at its Salt Lake headquarters. Asked then whether they would be fielded in the Rajya Sabha bypolls, Bhattacharya had smiled and replied, “Let the speculations continue. They are officially joining the party led by Narendra Modi who has steadily taken the nation forward. Right now the only identity of these three persons is that they are BJP workers,” he said. The suspense ended in a few hours when the BJP central leadership formally cleared their candidature.
Asked about his earlier assertion that no TMC leader would be inducted into the BJP, Bhattacharya said, “This is not a deviation but an exception. Exceptions prove the law. The BJP’s door is closed for TMC leaders who looted the people and those who are tainted.”
{{/usCountry}}Asked about his earlier assertion that no TMC leader would be inducted into the BJP, Bhattacharya said, “This is not a deviation but an exception. Exceptions prove the law. The BJP’s door is closed for TMC leaders who looted the people and those who are tainted.”
{{/usCountry}}Roy and Dev used the occasion to launch sharp attacks on the TMC, while Baraik did not speak at the event.
“People may raise questions but for me this is an hour of happiness. Bengal, which once led the nation in industry, education and healthcare, turned into a desert during the 34 years of Left rule and 15 years of TMC rule,” Roy said.
Claiming that the TMC had failed to read public sentiment after the RG Kar incident, he added, “The party is finished.”
Dev, who joined the TMC from the Congress in 2021, alleged widespread corruption in the TMC. “What I witnessed in the TMC is widespread corruption even at the grassroots level. This level of corruption is not seen in any other party,” she said.
The Election Commission announced the Rajya Sabha bypolls on Monday after the three leaders resigned in June following the TMC’s debacle in the assembly elections.
With the BJP commanding a comfortable majority in the Assembly, the election of Dev, Roy and Baraik to the Rajya Sabha is now widely seen as a formality, capping a dramatic political turnaround that saw them resign from the TMC, join the BJP and secure nominations to return to the Upper House within weeks.
The BJP currently controls three of the 13 Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal. The remaining 10 TMC MPs are all known to be Mamata Banerjee loyalists.