West Bengal elections: Denied ticket, five TMC MLAs join BJP

TMC’s candidate from Malda’s Habibpur Sarala Murmu, too, joined the saffron party.

Trinamool Congress leaders join BJP in presence of Dilip Ghosh and Mukul Roy in Kolkata on Monday. (Source: Twitter: @ANI)

Five Trinamool Congress MLAs, who were denied a ticket for the upcoming assembly elections, joined the BJP on Monday. Among those who joined the saffron party were three-time MLA from Singur Rabindranath Bhattacharya, four-time MLA from Satgachia in South 24 Parganas Sonali Guha, Basirhat Dakshin (North 24 Parganas) MLA Dipendu Biswas, Shibpur MLA Jatu Lahiri and five-time MLA from Sankrail Sital Kumar Sardar. Besides them, TMC’s candidate from Malda’s Habibpur Sarala Murmu and Bengali film actress Tanushree Chakraborty also joined the BJP.

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, national vice-president Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari and Locket Chatterjee welcomed the leaders to the saffron camp.

Guha had broken down in front of the media minutes after the release of TMC’s candidates’ list as it did not feature her name. TMC has fielded Mohan Chandra Naskar from Satgachia instead of Guha.

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According to sources, she had spoken to BJP leader Mukul Roy after TMC denied her the ticket and since then it was being speculated that she would join the saffron party. Sonali was considered as one of the “loyalists” of Mamata Banerjee.

Jatu Lahiri also expressed his displeasure on being denied the TMC ticket. “It’s not about me not getting the ticket. Those who joined the party two or three days ago have got tickets. If the party doesn’t need me, it’s time to move on,” he had told the media after resigning.

Sweety Kumari

Sweety Kumari reports from West Bengal for The Indian Express. She is a journalist with over a decade of experience in the media industry. Covers Crime, Defence, Health , Politics etc and writes on trending topics. With a keen eye for investigative and human-interest stories. She has honed her craft across diverse beats including aviation, health, incidents etc. Sweety delivers impactful journalism that informs and engages audiences. Sweety Kumari is a graduate of Calcutta University with an Honors degree in Journalism from Jaipuria College and a PG in Mass Communication from Jadavpur University. Originally from Bihar, she is brought up in Kolkata and completed her education from Kendriya Vidyalaya SaltLake. Multilingual, Sweety is fluent in English, Hindi, Bengali, and Maithili. She started her career as an Entertainment and lifestyle journalist with a newsportal in Kolkata. She is working with The Indian Express for 8 years now. ... Read More

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