West Bengal Assembly elections: Three TMC councillors from Asansol join BJP

This comes a day after Asansol MLA and TMC rebel Jitendra Tiwari joined the BJP.

Three TMC councillors from Asansol and Bidhannagar Mayor-in-Council Debasish Jana joined BJP today in Kolkata. (ANI Image)

A day after Asansol MLA and TMC rebel Jitendra Tiwari joined the BJP, three councillors from his constituency followed him to join the saffron party Wednesday in poll-bound West Bengal, news agency ANI reported. Besides the councillors, Bidhannagar Mayor-in-council Debasish Jana joined the BJP.

Ahead of the upcoming eight-phase Assembly polls in the state, Tiwari had joined the BJP in the presence of West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday and was inducted into the party at a public meeting in Hooghly’s Baidyabati. Tiwari, who had stepped down from the post of chairman of the administrative board of the Asansol Municipal Corporation and quit TMC two months ago, became the latest among several TMC leaders and MLAs who have defected to the saffron party.

“I thank the BJP for including me in their big family. I don’t want to make any allegations against anyone. But it is a fact that I could not express my views and opinions in my former party. Now I will be able to speak freely. Today, I got the opportunity to chant Jai Shri Ram from a public meeting,” Tiwari said after joining the BJP.

Meanwhile, Bengali film actor Sayantika Banerjee joined the Trinamool Congress today.

Kolkata: Bengali actor Sayantika Banerjee joins Trinamool Congress, ahead of assembly elections in West Bengal pic.twitter.com/KfMSg193Ob

— ANI (@ANI) March 3, 2021

According to sources, the TMC may give tickets fresh faces on nearly 100 of the 294 constituencies, including those of the 19 MLAs who switched to the BJP.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced an eight-phase election schedule for the 294-seat West Bengal Assembly starting from March 27 and going on till April 29. About 7,32,94,980 electors will exercise their franchise across 1,01,916 polling booths.

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