After Tanmoy Ghosh, Biswajit Das and Mukul Roy, another BJP MLA, Soumen Roy from Kaliyagunj in North Dinajpur, switched sides to the Trinamul Congress today.

Trinamul Congress secretary-general and state industry minister Partha Chatterjee handed Mr Roy the party flag at a programme in Kolkata. President of the North Dinajpur TMC committee Kanaiyalal Agarwal was present with Mr Roy in Kolkata today.

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Welcoming Mr Roy back to the party, Mr Chatterjee said: “He was previously in Trinamul Congress, then he joined BJP but he wanted to come back. After the decision of our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and party’s
chief Mamata Banerjee we welcome him back.”

“I thank Soumen as he has taken the decision at the right time. Many in the districts who had left the party are slowly coming back,” he said. Mr Roy said, “I was in Youth Trinamul Congress for a long time. Then I joined BJP before the election and contested on a BJP ticket from Kaliyagunj, but my heart was in Trinamul. I’ve seen our leader Mamata Banerjee has brought about a huge development in Bengal in the past 10 years.

I am a son of North Bengal and there is huge development there. The time I was not at the party, that is my mistake and I am sorry that I was misguided,” Mr Roy said. “In Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, there has been a development I want to be part of that. I have never called Suvendhu Adhikari, but I have heard that those who call him are unable to contact him. The culture of BJP does not match the culture of Bengal,” he said.

Mr Roy is a resident of Falakata in Jalpaiguri district and had won the polls from Kaliyaganj on a BJP ticket. According to some BJP members, the saffron party organisation in North Dinajpur had become weak after the Assembly elections, as district leaders had lost public contact.

“They do not have good public relations, and some district BJP leaders do not accept phone calls from the common people. The absence of proper leadership has been affecting the party in the district,” a BJP leader said.

The president of the North Dinajpur BJP committee, Basudev Sarkar, could not be contacted for comment on Mr Roy’s decision to return to the TMC. A member of the state BJP committee, Pradip Sarkar, however, said, “When Soumen Roy was given the ticket to contest the elections in Kaliyaganj, we had opposed the move. After the polls, we found that Roy had started cosying up to TMC leaders. We informed our state leaders about the matter, but they did not trust us.

Ultimately, he joined the TMC today. Soumen Roy’s absence will not affect the BJP organisation in the district. It is, however, a fact that a section of our district leaders has lost public contact.”

The president of the North Dinajpur TMC, Mr Agarwal, on the other hand, said, “Soumen was a TMC leader earlier too. He had joined the BJP before the Assembly elections for some reason. Though a BJP MLA, state BJP leaders
were sidelining him and he was not finding scope to work for the people.”