In a fresh setback to the Trinamool Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, another legislator of the ruling party in West Bengal, along with 15 councillors, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday.
Noapara MLA Sunil Singh became the third legislator to desert the TMC after the Lok Sabha elections in which the BJP made big gains in the state.
Singh joined the BJP in New Delhi in the presence of general secretary and West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya, and senior leader Mukul Roy. Singh is the brother-in-law of MP Arjun Singh, who switched over from the TMC to the BJP just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls and won the Barrackpore seat.
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“Mamata Banerjee has ruined the peaceful ambiance of West Bengal by propagating violence. That is why her party members are now leaving her side and joining our party,” Vijayvargiya said.
It may be noted that North 24 Parganas district, which was once a TMC bastion, is now the centre of mass exodus from the ruling party. The district is also home to Mukul Roy, once the second-in-command in the TMC after Banerjee.
On May 29, two TMC MLAs—Mukul Roy’s son Subhrangshu Roy and Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya—and CPI(M) legislator Debendra Nath Roy had joined the saffron party. More than 60 councillors, majority from the TMC, had also joined the BJP.
The TMC and the BJP have been engaged in regular clashes that intensified after the general elections in which the BJP won 18 seats in the state, only four less than the TMC.
