Former Mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee, who jumped ship from Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 2018, quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, 14 March, just days ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections. The announcement comes after Chatterjee was denied a ticket from his traditional assembly seat of Behala East.
The BJP decided to field actor Payal Sarkar, who joined the BJP only on 25 February, from the Behala East assembly constituency.
Along with Chatterjee, Baishakhi Banerjee has also decided to to part ways with the BJP.
They reportedly conveyed their decision to state BJP president Dilip Ghosh in a letter on Sunday.
The eight-phase West Bengal elections will begin on 27 March. Results for the polls, along with other states going to polls, will be declared on 2 May.
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