Ahead the forthcoming panchayat polls in West Bengal, the BJP on Sunday received a major jolt as another party MLA shifted to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
On Sunday afternoon, BJP legislator from Alipurduar constituency in Alipurduar district Suman Kanjilal reached the office of Trinamool's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in south Kolkata and joined the ruling party.
Banerjee himself handed over the party flag to Kanjilal - the sixth BJP legislator and the third from north Bengal to join Trinamool after the 2021 assembly elections. With this, the total number of BJP MLAs in the Assembly has come down to 68.
Also read |RJD MLA Sudhakar Singh calls Nitish 'Jhasebaz'
The Trinamool, in a statement. said that Kanjilal had joined them rejecting the anti- people policies of BJP as well as to be a part of the development activities under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Although Kanjilal himself had not made any comment on his action, his close associates said that his differences with BJP Lok Sabha member John Barla were the reasons for his decision to quit the party and join Trinamool.
State General Secretary and spokesman Kunal Ghosh told media persons that Kanjilal was the beginning and more elected BJP representatives are keen to join the state's ruling party. "We have asked them to wait for some time," Ghosh said.
Also read |PM Modi says govt attentive towards supporting sportspersons
BJP's state spokesman in West Bengal Samik Bhattacharya said that since Kanjilal's decision to join Trinamool was prompted by his ambition to be a part of the power centre, his defection will not make any difference for BJP in the days to come.
CPI-M Central Committee member Sujan Chakraborty said it is unfortunate that the turncoat politics has become the culture of West Bengal currently. "Trinamool Congress has introduced this culture in the state and there is constant competition going on between Trinamool and BJP is taking place in West Bengal these days," he said.
Suman Kanjilal 'odd man' of 6 BJP legislators who joined Trinamool
Suman Kanjilal, the BJP legislator from Alipurduar assembly constituency in West Bengal, who on Sunday joined the Trinamool Congress, is the only "odd man" out of the 6 saffron party MLAs who made the switch, considering the former journalist's political career includes no instance of jumping the ship.
However, the other five BJP legislators who joined Trinamool Congress after the 2021 assembly polls have a history of being "two-time turncoats". They first switched from Trinamool Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2021 polls and again went back to join the ruling party in Bengal after the elections.
Suman Kanjilal, who joined the Trinamool Congress on Sunday, has no records of any prior association with Trinamool Congress unlike the other five "turncoats".
In fact, Kanjilal has no history of active political life before he joined the BJP ahead of the 2021 state assembly polls after quitting his job as a journalist.
Also read |Congress to ask three questions daily on Adani issue
The first to start this trend of "ghar wapsi" was the BJP legislator from Krishnanagar (North) assembly constituency in Nadia district, Mukul Roy in June 2021, who, before joining BJP on November 3, 2017, was first the national general secretary and the national vice-president of Trinamool Congress. After he joined BJP, he also became the saffron party's national vice-president.
Soon, four other elected BJP legislators followed the path of "ghar wapsi" like Mukul Roy.
These four turncoat legislators were Tanmay Ghosh from Bishnupur assembly in August 2021, Biswajit Das from Bagda assembly also in August of the same year, Soumen Roy from Kaliagunj assembly in September 2021 and Krishna Kalyani from Raigunj assembly in October 2021.
All of them, like Mukul Roy, before joining the BJP, had past stints with the Trinamool Congress.
