6th MLA joins BJP along with party councillors in West Bengal

Biswajit Das, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Bongaon North, became the sixth legislator to join the saffron party after the Lok Sabha election results.

A Trinamool Congress legislator and a dozen party councillors joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday.

Former TMC MLA Biswajit Das (L) and former Congress leader Pradeep Banerjee joined BJP along with 12 other councillors in the presence of BJP leaders. (Arvind Yadav/HT PHOTO)

Biswajit Das, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Bongaon North, became the sixth legislator to join the saffron party after the Lok Sabha election results.

With the 12 councillors switching sides, the control of Bongaon municipality effectively has gone from the TMC to the BJP.

Since the Lok Sabha poll results, TMC has lost control of five civic bodies in West Bengal. These are Bhatpara, Halisahar, Kanchrapara, Naihati and Garulia.

The BJP made deep inroads into West Bengal for the first time, winning 18 of the 42 seats, in the national elections. The TMC’s seats dipped from 34 to 22.

On Monday, TMC legislator Sunil Singh and 12 councillors of Garulia municipality joined the saffron party.

On May 28, TMC legislator Subhranshu Roy, Bishnupur’s Congress-turned-TMC MLA Tusharkanti Bhattacharya and Hemtabad’s Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Debendra Nath Roy joined the saffron camp in Delhi.

On May 29, TMC legislator from Monirul Islam switched over to the BJP. On June 17, TMC MLA Sunil Singh quit Bengal’s ruling party and crossed over to the BJP.

“In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP is ahead in 121 assembly segments [out of 294 in the state],” said Mukul Roy, national executive member of the BJP who was present at the event on Tuesday. The BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya welcomed the MLA and councillors from Bengal.

This year, before the Lok Sabha polls, five elected representatives from other parties joined the BJP. They were TMC members of Parliament Soumitra Khan and Anupam Hazra, TMC MLA Arjun Singh, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Khagen Murmu and Congress MLA Dulal Chandra Bar.

In 2020, polls will be held in as many as 82 civic bodies including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.