The defection of Bishnupur MLA Tanmoy Ghosh has created a storm in the state BJP in West Bengal. Pratap Banerjee, a state vice-president, reacted angrily, saying Mamata Banerjee's government would fall before 2026.
Bengal is the only state in India where the BJP has lost two of its MLAs to one political party—earlier, it was Mukul Roy, now it is Tanmoy Ghosh. The story has been the other way around in the rest of the country—Manipur, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
Tanmoy Ghosh is not a heavyweight like Mukul Roy, the first MLA who left BJP. But, according to sources, about 15 BJP MLAs are in touch with the TMC.
These MLAs are from North 24 Parganas, Bankura, East Midnapore and a couple of MLAs from North Bengal from where BJP won 29 out of 54 seats.
The party's top brass have given the responsibility of retaining MLAs to the leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari today rushed to Bishnupur and spoke to all of the party's remaining MLAs (four from the area). BJP had performed well in the Bishnupur Lok Sabha area, which gave the party six out of seven seats.
Saumitra Khan, BJYM state president, is the MP from Bishnupur. Tanmoy is known to be close to Khan.
Khan took to social media to attack Tanmoy saying the best thing Tanmoy should have done was first resigning as MLA before defecting to TMC.
The defection of Tanmoy adds to the TMC's pressure on BJP as both the CBI and ED have sent summon notices to key TMC leaders, including Abhishek Banerjee, and several other top police officials in the Coal trafficking case. Mamata recently said she would undertake another trip to Delhi very soon to work on setting up a possible front against BJP at the national level.
Though the BJP in Bengal may be fraction-ridden, the party has appealed to its national leaders not to get cowed down by TMC's pressure tactics.
Sources have revealed that Home Minister Amit Shah may undertake a journey to North Bengal as requested by MLAs and MPs from North Bengal soon. The meeting, sources said, would not be a party affair but would be on the development of North Bengal and addressing its unresolved political disputes.
Two BJP leaders who had demanded the separation of North Bengal from Darjeeling are expected to be present in the meeting. Both of them had been accommodated as ministers of state in the last reshuffling. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will also be invited to the meeting.
This month, leaders from North Bengal had met with Shah in Delhi and advised him to hold a meeting in North Bengal for fulfilling "political solutions" to the issues of Gorkhas and Rajbangshis in North Bengal.
