BJP MP Arjun Singh’s kin return to TMC; several nominees withdraw from civic polls

Arjun Singh’s brother-in-law Sunil Singh, a former legislator of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) returned to the party on Sunday afternoon along with his son Aditya. The MP’s nephew, Saurav Singh, the former chairman of Bhatpara municipality in North 24 Parganas, also returned to the TMC.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suffered a blow in Bengal with several of its candidates, including three close relatives of Arjun Singh, the Lok Sabha member from Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas, withdrawing their candidature for the February 27 polls at 108 civic bodies. The deadline for withdrawing nomination ended on Saturday.

With the focus being on the polls in four civic bodies on Saturday, several BJP candidates in the other districts of Bengal withdrew their nomination for the February 27 polls citing pressure from the ruling party. (PTI PHOTO.)

Arjun Singh’s brother-in-law Sunil Singh, a former legislator of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) returned to the party on Sunday afternoon along with his son Aditya. The MP’s nephew, Saurav Singh, the former chairman of Bhatpara municipality in North 24 Parganas, also returned to the TMC. All three had joined the BJP when Arjun Singh left the ruling party before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and defeated Dinesh Trivedi, the TMC’s the then sitting MP from Barrackpore.

“The BJP will be ousted from Bengal very soon. It is riddled with infighting. I betrayed the TMC by joining the BJP. This haunted me for two years,” Sunil Singh said in the presence of minister Jyotipriya Mallick, the TMC’s heavyweight leader from the district.

Mallick, who was inducted into the TMC’s new national working committee by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, said, “I spoke to our party chief and secretary general Partha Chatterjee before the BJP leaders returned to the party.”

Refuting allegations levelled by local BJP leaders that he took money from the TMC, Saurav Singh said: “I did not take a penny from anyone. Infighting plagues the district BJP unit. I raised this issue before my uncle and even BJP national president J P Nadda. There are no workers left in the Bengal BJP. Everyone wants to be a leader.”

With his most trusted aides switching sides, Arjun Singh said he failed to identify traitors in his own family.

“I could not identify these traitors. That was a blunder in my political career that spans over 32 years. Had I known that they will betray the BJP I would have never asked the leadership to nominate them for the civic polls,” said the Barrackpore MP against whom the state police has filed multiple criminal cases since 2019. The charges range from violence to corruption.

With the focus being on the polls in four civic bodies on Saturday, several BJP candidates in the other districts of Bengal withdrew their nomination for the February 27 polls citing pressure from the ruling party. There were indications that some of these candidates might join the TMC.

Sandip Das, a BJP candidate at Arambagh town in Hooghly district withdrew his nomination in the presence of local TMC leaders. After his exit, the BJP will contest 17 of the 19 seats in Arambagh municipality.

In Murshidabad district’s Berhampore town, where Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury represented the local Lok Sabha seat, two candidates from his party withdrew their nomination and joined the TMC on Saturday. Following this, Chowdhury marched to the office of the district superintendent of police with the remaining 26 candidates seeking protection for them.

At Rampurhat town in Birbhum district, nine out of 18 BJP candidates withdrew their nomination.

Seven candidates quit the polls at three municipalities in East Burdwan district. TMC’s district unit president Rabindranath Chatterjee said: “Why should anyone be threatened when the opposition has not been able to find candidates for most of the seats? The BJP is raising baseless allegations to hide its organizational weakness.”

As many as 12 candidates quit the polls at Contai, Jhargram, Midnapore, Ghatal, Ramjibanpur and Kharagpur towns spread across three districts.

At Taki municipality in North 24 Parganas district, the TMC won seven of 16 seats uncontested after the Left Front, Congress and BJP candidates withdrew their papers.

The deadline for filing nomination papers ended on Wednesday afternoon. The TMC captured Sainthia municipality in Birbhum district because no opposition candidate filed nomination for 13 of the 16 seats. Similarly, at Budge Budge municipality in South 24 Parganas district, the TMC won in 12 of the 20 civic wards.

Of the 2270 wards in 108 civic bodies spread across 22 districts of Bengal, the ruling party has won close to 100 wards uncontested.

At Dinhata municipality in north Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, the TMC has captured seven of the 16 wards. At Siuri and Bolpur municipalities in Bibhum district, the TMC has won two and three civic wards respectively because of the absence of any opposition.

Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya admitted that his party failed to field nominees in many civic wards across Bengal.

“Our candidates faced threats round the clock. Many of them were compelled to give in to the pressure but the others are holding ground. The BJP is very much in the race,” said Bhattacharya.

He alleged that the situation is similar to what Bengal witnessed during the 2018 panchayat polls when the ruling party won around 34% seats uncontested amid widespread violence that claimed 17 lives before the polls and around 20 on the day of the election. The Supreme Court ordered re-poll in a few hundred booths when the BJP moved court.