Ahead of Panchayat Polls: BJP’s Alipurduar MLA joins Trinamool

With this, the number of MLAs of the BJP, which had won 77 seats in the state elections, has come down to 69 in the West Bengal Assembly. Two party MPs, who had won the Assembly elections, had later resigned as MLAs. The Trinamool won the by-elections from the two constituencies.

Kanjilal was camping in Kolkata for the last three days, sources in the BJP said. He is believed to have switched sides on the persuasion of another MLA who earlier left the BJP to join the TMC.

BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said the party will not lose its relevance in state politics due to change of party by some MLAs. Leader of Opposition in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari tweeted, “Are you scared of the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution (anti-defection law)? Not handing over TMC flag? Because, inside Vidhan Sabha, as in the case of Mukul Roy, TMC Owner labelled him as BJP; Suman Kanjilal would also claim that he belongs to the BJP Legislative Party.”

Responding to Adhikari’s tweet, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh posted on Twitter, “Before tweeting this to public, please go home first, and tell this theory of anti defection law to your father and brother. Also accept the fact that MLAs of BJP have no trust on BJP and LOP. This is failure of opportunist betrayer Suvendu Adhikari also.”

The BJP MLAs who earlier switched their sides to the TMC after the 2021 assembly polls are Mukul Roy (Krishnanagar North), Soumen Roy (Kaliaganj), Krishna Kalyani (Raiganj), Biswajit Das (Bagda) and Tanmoy Ghosh (Bishnupur).

Suvendu Adhikari had appealed to Speaker Biman Banerjee to disqualify them as MLAs. He had even moved the Calcutta High Court on the same. The matter is pending in the court.

In the 2021 elections, the TMC failed to win even a single seat from Alipurduar district.