Trinamool Congress legislator to join BJP today in Kolkata today

Sabyasachi Dutta will be the eighth MLA from the Trinamool Congress to join the BJP party since the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced.

Trinamool Congress legislator and former mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation Sabyasachi Dutta is set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday, thereby becoming the ninth MLA from Bengal and eighth from Mamata Banerjee’s party to switch over to saffron party since the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced.

Sabyasachi Dutta, a Trrinamool Congress lawmaker from Rajarhat New Town Assembly constituency since 2011, has had differences with TMC leaders even before the Lok Sabha polls. (West Bengal Assembly)

“I shall be joining the BJP on Tuesday. I will take the flag from party president Amit Shah,” Dutta said Monday evening.

Avoiding a direct comment, Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said that if someone was inspired by the struggles of party chief Mamata Banerjee, he or she would never quit the TMC.

Dutta, a legislator from Rajarhat New Town Assembly constituency since 2011, had differences with TMC leaders even before the Lok Sabha polls. The differences grew sharper after the elections.

Dutta openly rubbed shoulders with BJP leaders such as Mukul Roy (national executive member), Dilip Ghosh (state unit president) and Kailash Vijayvargiya (national general secretary).

“Dutta’s joining was being discussed for long. It’s good if it finally happens,” said Ghosh.

Out of the eight other Bengal MLAs who have joined the BJP since May 23, seven - Subhranshu Roy, Sovan Chatterjee, Biswajit Das, Tusharkanti Bhattacharya, Monirul Islam, Sunil Singh and Wilson Champramari - were from TMC while Debendra Nath Roy was from the CPI-M.

The Trinamool Congress has 206 members in 295 member house.

In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP made deep inroads into Bengal winning 18 seats, a nine-time rise from its 2014 tally of two MPs. The TMC’s seats dipped from 34 to 22.

The BJP’s vote share rose from 17.02% in 2014 to 40.25% this year, while the TMC’s share crept up from 39.79% to 43.28% in the same period.

In a separate development on Monday, the BJP lost control of Garulia municipality (in North 24 Parganas district) that it wrested from the TMC after the Lok Sabha elections. Its chairman and local MLA Sunil Singh, who joined the BJP from TMC after the LS polls, tendered his resignation after a majority of councillors, who switched over to the BJP, returned to the TMC and brought a no-trust motion against Singh.

With Garulia, TMC has regained control over five of the seven civic bodies that the BJP wrested from Bengal’s ruling party after the LS elections.