The trend of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders jumping ship to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued on Wednesday, 29 May, as TMC MLA Manirul Islam, along with party leaders Gadadhar Hazra, Mohammad Asif Iqbal and Nimai Das, joined the saffron party in Delhi.
TMC MLAs Subhranshu Roy, Tusharkanti Bhattacharjee and CPM MLA Devendra Roy along with 50-60 councillors had joined the BJP in Delhi on Tuesday. Subhranshu is the son of BJP leader Mukul Roy, and had been suspended by TMC recently.
The switch by the MLAs and the councillors came just days after the 2019 Lok Sabha election results gave the BJP an unprecedented 18 seats and a 40 percent vote share in West Bengal.
“Like the elections were held in seven phases in West Bengal, joinings in BJP will also happen in seven phases. Today was just the first phase,” said BJP National General secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya at the joining ceremony.
Earlier in the day, 16 TMC Councillors of the Kanchrapara Municipality collectively withdrew from TMC Councillor' Party. Subhrangshu Roy also withdrew his membership.
All three legislators represent Assembly constituencies under Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency.