E-Paper
Charged with defection, turncoat Trinamool lawmaker speaks out against BJP
Sunil Mondal spoke out a day after Sudip Bandopadhyay, leader of the TMC in the Lok Sabha, called up Speaker Om Birla and urged him to take action on the petitions he had earlier filed seeking disqualification of Mondal and Sishir Adhikari who joined the BJP prior to the Bengal assembly polls.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MP, Sunil Mondal, against whom Bengal’s ruling party has brought charges of defection for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has accused the saffron camp of ignoring newcomers like him.
The Burdwan East MP also accused Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the West Bengal legislative assembly, of not keeping a single promise made to him.
“Adhikari did not keep a single promise he made. He does not even receive my calls. The BJP does not let newcomers work,” said Mondal. Amid speculations that he might try to return to the TMC like Mukul Roy, TMC supporters put up posters in the Burdwan East constituency, saying he should not be allowed to make a comeback.
Mondal spoke out a day after Sudip Bandopadhyay, leader of the TMC in the Lok Sabha, called up Speaker Om Birla and urged him to take action on the petitions he had earlier filed seeking disqualification of Mondal and Sishir Adhikari who joined the BJP prior to the recent Bengal assembly polls. The Speaker told Bandopadhyay that a committee would be set up to review the petitions.
Bandopadhyay had called up the Speaker on the same issue on June 3. The second call was made on a day when 50 BJP legislators in Bengal met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and demanded that any MLA who joins the TMC should face action under the anti-defection law passed by the Parliament. The team was led by Suvendu Adhikari who is Sishir Adhikari’s son.
Mondal joined the BJP in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah in December last year.
Sishir Adhikari did not formally pick up the BJP flag but shared the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the election campaign. He is the MP from Contai in East Midnapore district. His second son, Dibyendu, is the Lok Sabha member from the district’s Tamluk seat.
Reacting to Mondal’s statement, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “Many people joined the BJP thinking that the party will come to power. Now they are making excuses. The BJP welcomed all of them and showed them respect.”
The TMC has 22 Lok Sabha MPs since the BJP won 18 seats in 2019. Bengal has 42 seats. Till 2019, the TMC had 34 MPs in the Lower House.
