In an embarrassment to West Bengal BJP unit, a senior leader and MLA who had joined the saffron party after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls rejoined TMC on Friday. Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya had won from Bishnupur seat in the 2016 assembly polls on a Congress ticket and joined TMC in July that year. He had, however, not quit his assembly seat.
After BJP’s spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, when it won 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, Bhattacharya joined BJP at its national headquarters in the presence of BJP national secretary and Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya. However, within a year Bhattacharya is back in TMC.
“I had no grudge against TMC. I was upset with the party on certain issues which have now been resolved. I am happy to return to the TMC.” Bhattacharya said at the programme at Bishnupur in Bankura district where he rejoined TMC.
BJP declined to attach much importance to Bhattacharya quitting the party. “He had joined BJP just on pen and paper. He was never into any party-related activities. His leaving the party hardly matters,” BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu said.
Seven TMC MLAs and one each of Congress and CPI(M) have switched over to BJP since the results of Lok Sabha polls were announced in May and the saffron party wooed rival party leaders to bolster its strength in the run-up to the next assembly polls in the state, due in April-May 2021. Bhattacharya is the first of the nine MLAs to return to TMC.
The development comes days after West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee gave a call to the party’s disgruntled leaders to return to its fold and put up a united fight against BJP.
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