In a fresh setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal, Biswajit Das, the party’s MLA from Bagda constituency in North 24 Parganas, joined the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday.
Das is the second BJP legislator to have switched sides in two days and the third since the Mamata Banerjee-led party returned to power for a third consecutive time in May this year, after a sweeping victory in the assembly elections.
A former TMC legislator from Bongaon in North 24 Parganas, Das had sided with the BJP in June 2019, a month after the party had won 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats.
“There was some miscommunication which had led to change. It shouldn’t have happened. I have come back,” he told reporters at the TMC headquarters here.