Fifth BJP legislator joins Trinamool Congress in less than six months

TMC’s national general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee had recently said that several BJP leaders are willing to join the TMC but the ruling party hasn’t opened its doors for all.

In another blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal, Krishna Kalyani --- the party’s MLA from Raiganj in north Bengal --- joined the ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday.

Krishna Kalyani -- the BJP’s MLA from Raiganj in north Bengal joined the ruling Trinamool Congress in Kolkata on Wednesday. (ANI PHOTO.)

Since the Mamata Banerjee-led party returned to power for the third consecutive time with a thumping victory in the West Bengal assembly polls in May this year, at least five legislators, including Kalyani, have joined the TMC. Last month, former Union minister and party MP Babul Supriyo also switched over to the TMC.

“In BJP there is no audit of good performance. There is only conspiracy. You cannot win an election with just conspiracy. To win an election you need development,” Kalyani said after joining the TMC at a hotel in Kolkata.

He had quit the BJP on October 1 after being slapped with a show cause notice by the party for publicly speaking against senor party leaders including BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumdar and former Union minister and Raiganj MP Debasree Chaudhuri.

Another BJP leader Firoze Kamal Gazi alias Babu Master also quit the party. Earlier an influential TMC leader and a strongman from Basirhat in North 24 Parganas, he had recently joined the BJP. He even apologized to TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.

TMC’s national general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee had recently said that several BJP leaders are willing to join the TMC but the ruling party hasn’t opened its doors for all.

“The day we open our doors, the next day BJP would be wiped out in West Bengal,” Abhishek Banerjee had said while addressing a public rally last week.