‘Not good for opposition unity’: Congress slams Trinamool for ‘poaching’ its lone Bengal MLA

Bayron Biswas joining TMC is a ‘complete betrayal’ of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi assembly constituency, said Congress veteran Jairam Ramesh.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) ‘poaching’ the lone Congress MLA in West Bengal ‘is not designed to strengthen’ the opposition's attempts to form a common alliance against the ruling BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress veteran Jairam Ramesh warned on Tuesday, a day after Sagardighi legislator Bayron Biswas joined TMC, the state's ruling party.

Congress MLA from Sagardighi assembly seat Bayron Biswas (right) joined the TMC at an event chaired by Abhishek Banerjee in West Midnapore district’s Ghatal area (Twitter/aitcRajabar)(HT_PRINT)

“Three months after he was elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory Bayron Biswas has been lured away by the TMC in West Bengal. This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly Constituency,” tweeted Ramesh.

He added: “Such poaching which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states is not designed to strengthen Opposition unity and only serves the BJP's objectives.”

The Trinamool's induction of Biswas comes at a time when, led by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, opposition parties have held a series of meetings to forge a common alliance to take on the saffron party in the next parliamentary elections, slated for April-May next year, with prime minister Narendra Modi and the BJP looking for a third straight term at the Centre.

The central idea is to consolidate the 63% votes that did not go to the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls; these votes were scattered amongst various opposition parties. On June 12, non-BJP leaders will meet in Bihar's capital Patna for the first of many larger meetings towards this goal.

Congress vs Trinamool Congress

On March 2, Biswas came out as winner after votes were counted for the Sagardighi byelections, the polling for which was conducted on February 27. Also a Left-backed candidate, he defeated Trinamool's Debashish Banerjee by 22,986 votes. After the results, an angry TMC supremo, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, accused the grand old party and Left of having an ‘immoral alliance’ with the BJP, the principal opposition in the state.

The Congress' recent rout of the erstwhile BJP government in Karnataka has, however, led to Banerjee softening her stance. According to her, it must focus only in those states where it is strong, and let regional counterparts take the lead in states where it is weak.