CALCUTTA: All roads from the divided house of the Trinamool Congress appeared to lead to the BJP as the procession of disgruntled officials that followed former Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari out of the party dragged on Friday. When Interior Minister Amit Shah landed in Kolkata late at night for a series of demonstrations over the weekend, Barrackpore MLA Shilbhadra Dutta and Contai (North) legislator Banashree Maiti resigned from TMC, while at least one more, Dipali Biswas of Malda’s Gajol, indicated that he had decided to join the BJP.
Trinamool also lost its minority cell secretary general, Kabirul Islam, and the president of Midnapore municipality, Pranab Basu, in what now looks like an exodus rather than a trickle. BJP sources claimed that no less than 30 other people from Mamata Banerjee’s party – MLA, Parliamentarians, zilla parishad and city officials and state-level officials, would go to the saffron at Shah’s rally in Midnapore on Saturday. The demonstration would be a “game changer” in Bengal politics, they said.
Basu, who used to be a member of the district mentoring group at TMC, named seven district officials and at least one MP, Sunil Mandal from East Burdwan, as linked to the BJP. Mandal has yet to confirm or deny that he will be joining BJP at Shah’s rally.
TMC isn’t the only match where BJP appears to be winning. CPM’s Tapasi Mondal, East Midnapore’s Haldia MLA, is said to be among those ready to cross.
The defection error also bit the Birbhum stronghold of Trinamool, where former councilors of the Bolpur municipality Arup roy and Shelley Roy resigned on Friday, sparking speculation that they could join BJP when Shah visits the district on Sunday.
Aides to Arch Rebel Adhikari, who left TMC on Thursday with MLA Jitendra Tiwari of Pandabeswar of West Burdwan, said he had been inundated with phone calls from disillusioned former colleagues who wanted out. The former Nandigram MLA will soon be touring the districts as a member of the BJP, they said.
BJP sources in Delhi said Shah’s tour in Midnapore with “over 40” former TMC officials, including Adhikari, was intended to send the message that the saffron party is not short of faces worth presenting at. the assembly polls next year.
“There will be a steady stream of departures after Kharmas (a supposedly unfavorable 15-day period that runs until December 21) and the Mamata government will be in crisis by mid-January,” he said. Arjun singh, a former member of TMC who is now the BJP MP from Barrackpore.
While Trinamool comfortably retains its majority in the assembly, further defections from its ranks could damage Mamata’s aura of invincibility that created his second victory. With politics already taking a violent turn in parts of Bengal, signaling force is seen as critical to reassuring supporters and winning new adherents.
(With contributions from Sanjib Chakraborty, Sujoy Khanra, Subhro Maitra and Someswar Boral in Bengal and Akhilesh Singh in Delhi)
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