A significant number of Trinamool defectors in the BJP are now looking to get back into Ms Banerjee’s party.
Among the many challenges faced by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the recently held assembly elections was the exodus of her party leaders and workers, who detected to the saffron party just ahead of the polls. The sheer number of TMC leaders quitting the party to join the BJP reinforced talk of the Trinamool Congress’s collapse.
However, Mamata Banerjee proved all of them wrong on May 2 when she won a resounding victory. The TMC supremo stunned her critics with the scale of her victory as her party won 213 seats out of 292 assembly seats. The main challenger- the BJP- managed to win 77 seats.
According to NDTV’S report, now the reverse migration seems to be taking place in the state. A significant number of Trinamool defectors in the BJP are now looking to get back into Ms Banerjee’s party.
After having left the Trinamool in March, former MLA Sonali Guha now feels like “fish out of water”. Dipendu Biswas, the footballer-turned-politician, wrote to Ms Banerjee saying he wants to “take the TMC flag again”. Other such names include Sarala Murmu and Amal Acharya, according to a PTI report.
The buzz also says that Rajib Banerjee, a minister in Ms Banerjee’s government till weeks before the polls, is considering to join back the TMC.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told NDTV: “Not only leaders, seven-to-eight winning MLAs and 3-4 sitting MPs of the BJP have expressed their wish to join the Trinamool Congress.”
“But we have to honour the sentiments of party cadres, too. These leaders left the party just before elections and the workers and leaders managed to win the election under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee,” Mr Ghosh said.
The biggest name doing the rounds in the circle of West Bengal politics to return to TMC is that of Mukul Roy. One of the first Trinamool leaders to have left the side of Mamata Banerjee, Mr Roy’s son has now made a Facebook post perceived to be critical of the BJP.
However, the saffron party dismissed reports of such a move on Mr Roy’s part.
“There was a perception that the BJP is coming to power and the Trinamool will lose power. A lot of people joined our party crying and now they are leaving laughing. People are watching this. People can see why they came to us and why they are leaving,” said West Bengal BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya.
However, only few leaders have openly expressed desire to switch sides until now, while most big names have remained silent.
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