It appears that a mass deserting from political parties in Bengal have begun in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the state assembly polls which fall in April next year.
Suvendu Adhikari quitting Trinamool Congress (TMC) sure is a gut blow to chief minister Mamata Banerjee eyeing her third consecutive win but the list has only grown in the last 24 hours.
Adhikari was followed by Asansol MLA Jitendra Tiwari who quit as the Chairman, Board of Administrators, Asansol Municipal Corporation. Further, Abhijit Acharya quit as vice-president of Paschim Bardhaman and Retd. Col Diptangshu Choudhary resigned as chairman of South Bengal State Transport Corporation.
Tiwari had recently slammed the state government for depriving the industrial town of Asansol of central funds for political reasons.
In yet another significant setback to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal, Barrackpore MLA Shilbhadra Dutta resigned from key post of the party on Friday. This is the third major exit from the party in two days. Earlier, senior party leader and former minister Suvendu Adhikari and Jitendra Tiwari had left TMC.
Baffled by a series of resignations that have hit the party ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for next year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had reportedly called for an emergency meeting on Friday.
But that’s not all. In a “No More Injustice” function in Burwan, some 1500 persons from other political parties joined BJP on Thursday.
In the function, BJP MP Saumitra Khan made a startling claim that a Trinamool MP from Murshidabad district would soon join BJP. He said the Trinamool parliamentarian was in regular touch with the leaders in BJP. In 2019, Abu Taher Khan of Trinamool Congress had won the seat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Further, Saumitra claimed that most of the TMC MLAs and MPs would leave the party and join BJP.
BJP Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya blamed it on Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee, who is causing much heart-burn in the TMC ranks. Vijayvargiya alleged that Abhishek protects all mafias in the state.
“Mamataji and his nephew have a greed for power. Her nephew (Abhishek Banerjee) protects all the mafia—coal mafia, gold mafia etc. The old ministers who fought with Mamata are getting insulted. While there is still respect for Mamata ji in Trinamool, due to her defence of her nephew’s wrongdoings, she has fallen prey to their ire. See how all people are running away from Trinamool, as people know BJP’s government is coming. “
