BJP Bengal MLA Quits To Join TMC; Had Defected to Saffron Party Before Polls

BJP MLA from Bishnupur, Tanmoy Ghosh, joined the TMC in Kolkata. Ghosh had earlier defected from the TMC to the BJP.

Bishnupur MLA Tanmoy Ghosh (left), who rejoined the TMC, with TMC leader Bratya Basu (right).

(Photo: AITC)

Tanmoy Ghosh, a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from West Bengal, who won the recently concluded West Bengal assembly elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, defected to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday, 30 August.

Ghosh is the second sitting BJP MLA to have defected to the TMC after the new government was formed early this year. In the election, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, defeated the BJP by an overwhelming majority to come to power in the state for a third consecutive term.

Ghosh, from Bengal's Bishnupur assembly constituency, was earlier with the TMC but had jumped ship to the BJP before the assembly elections. He was inducted back into the party by senior leader and minister Bratya Basu.

In June, Mukul Roy, another sitting BJP MLA, who won from the Krishnanagar constituency, joined the TMC in the presence of Chief Minister Banerjee. Roy, who was also with the TMC earlier and once its second-in-command, had quit the party to join the BJP in 2017. He returned to the TMC after the BJP's electoral defeat.

The BJP, which won 77 seats in the elections, is now left with 73 MLAs in the assembly. Two of their elected MLAs, who were also MPs, had resigned from their assembly posts to continue as legislators in the Lok Sabha.

"BJP is into vindictive politics. They are attempting to snatch the rights of Bengal's people by using central agencies. I urge all politicians to support CM Mamata Banerjee for public welfare," said Ghosh during his induction ceremony at the Senator Hotel in Kolkata.

Ghosh was earlier the TMC youth president of Bishnupur town in Bankura district and also a councillor of the local civic body.

A host of former TMC leaders, who had quit the party before the elections to join the BJP, have expressed dissent against their new party once the results were declared.

TMC leaders have repeatedly claimed that multiple MLAs and other leaders from the BJP have been in touch with them in order to join the party.