Ex-union minister John Barla joins TMC, slams BJP over neglect of tribals

John Barla represented north Bengal’s Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat from 2019 to 2024 and served as Union minister of state for minority affairs from 2021 to 2024

Kolkata: John Barla, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and Union minister of state, joined the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday, nearly four months after stoking speculation by attending an administrative meeting of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

That Barla was planning to switch party was under speculations since January this year

Barla, 49, represented north Bengal’s Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat from 2019 to 2024 and served as union minister of state for minority affairs from 2021 to 2024.

“The BJP did not let me do anything for tribal people and tea garden workers in north Bengal. We had been demanding land rights for tea garden workers since 2007. Mamata Banerjee has given at least five decimals of land to each of them. She has launched so many welfare projects for the tribal. Leader of the opposition (in the assembly) Suvendu Adhikari did not allow me to build even a hospital,” Barla said at the TMC headquarters in Kolkata.

He was welcomed to the party by TMC state president Subrata Bakshi and cabinet minister Aroop Biswas .

“In Assam, they (BJP) did not give an inch of land to tea garden workers and they take pride in running a double engine sarkar,” said Barla, adding “I can see this government (Cente) playing with the Constitution. Tribals will not let go of their rights. In Bengal, Didi (Banerjee) has launched so many social welfare schemes such as Duare Sarkar and Lakshmir Bhandar.”

Barla’s switch had been speculated since January this year. Several TMC office-bearers frequently met Barla since last year’s Lok Sabha polls, which he did not contest.

“Mamata Banerjee has come here because she wants development of this region. She called me,” Barla has said on January 23 after the chief minister exchanged pleasantries with him before an administrative meeting in Alipurduar.

Barla accused the BJP of not fielding him for the second time. The seat was won by BJP’s Manoj Tigga, who was the sitting MLA from the Madarihat assembly in Alipurduar district.

In November last year, Barla posed for the camera with Jay Prakash Toppo, the TMC candidate for the Madarihat assembly bypoll. Barla did not campaign for Rahul Lohar, the BJP candidate for the bypoll, who lost.

West Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, “Let him be happy and content wherever he is. If he tries to contest against the BJP in the assembly polls we will send him to the restroom. It is TMC that has neglected the north Bengal region. He (Tigga) was a Union minister. What has the leader of the opposition in the assembly got to do with him?”