Nine months after he joined the BJP, former West Bengal minister Rajib Banerjee returned to the Trinamool Congress on Sunday. Rajib Banerjee is the latest in a string of TMC turncoats to return from the BJP.
Rajib Banerjee was re-inducted into the TMC at a rally addressed by Abhishek Banerjee, the party's general secretary, in Agartala, Tripura.
The rally was attended by Sushmita Dev, another recent entrant to the TMC and the party's in-charge for the northeast. There is speculation Rajib was welcomed back to the TMC in Tripura as he has had links in the state, where the regional party is aggressively building its network to challenge the ruling BJP.
Rajib had joined the BJP in Delhi in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah on January 30. Rajib had served as forest minister in the Mamata Banerjee government prior to that. After joining the BJP, Rajib had alleged that he had been insulted in the TMC.
Rajib had contested the 2021 Assembly polls from Domjur, but lost to TMC's Kalyan Ghosh by over 30,000 votes. Rajib had won from the same constituency in the 2011 and 2016 elections as a TMC member.
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After the Assembly elections, Rajib had voiced criticism of the BJP and softened his tone on TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. This gave rise to rumours Rajib was attempting to return to the TMC.
However, at that time, his return to the TMC was opposed by leaders such as Kalyan Banerjee and Arup Roy. Critics of Rajib Banerjee claimed he used personnel from the Central security forces assigned to protect him to torture TMC workers in the Howrah area.
