Three rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, and Prakash Chik Baraik on Thursday formally joined the BJP at an event in Kolkata.
The defection, which comes weeks after the three Rajya Sabha MPs staged a 'Ritabrata-model' exit from the Mamata Banerjee camp, marks yet another setback for the latter.
They were inducted at the saffron party's Salt Lake office in the presence of state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya and other senior leaders.
This marks a slight change in approach from that of the rebel bloc of Lok Sabha MPs led by Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, which broke away from the Mamata camp and joined the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI), in order to support the ruling NDA alliance from the outside.
"Prior to 2011, (Ray) never became MP or MLA, respecting him, Mamata Banerjee sent him to Rajya Sabha, today he joined BJP," said Mamata loyalist Kunal Ghosh in a statement, criticising the move.
The Mamata camp has often lashed out at the rebels, with the TMC supremo herself calling them "traitors" in a recent video, as her camp faces setback after setback, with the Ritabrata faction of the TMC also claiming ownership of the identity of the party she created nearly three decades ago.
Three accounts of the Mamata camp, containing Rs 440.42 crore, were also frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 8, in connection with a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
This comes about a month after Aroop Biswas of the Ritabrata bloc of MLAs led the police to place a "debit freeze" on the same bank accounts as a precautionary move.
The rebel MLAs had sought an FIR and a detailed probe into the movement and the origin of the funds held in the accounts, questioning whether the deposits were linked to alleged unlawful activities.
However, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday granted Mamata permission to use funds from the three accounts, but only for day-to-day expenses.
Also, till September 30, the use of these funds by the Mamata camp will be monitored by retired Justice Subrata Talukadar.
Justice Saugata Bhattacharya of the Calcutta High Court also flagged the haste in the Bidhan Nagar Police filing a case and placing a "debit freeze" on the three bank accounts, rejecting the state governement's arguments against allowing the Mamata camp to use the money in those accounts.
“At this stage, the court has not found any specific evidence that could have warranted such a sudden move ... Why did everything happen so quickly?" she said, as per a Jansatta report.
Though Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state, said that action was taken quickly to protect the money and property of common people, the Calcutta HC went on to label the rebel faction's actions as opportunism.
