Former Trinamul Congress leader and current national executive member of the BJP from West Bengal, Mr Rajib Banerjee, and a sitting Tripura MLA belonging to the saffron party joined the Trinamul Congress in a mega rally in Agartala addressed by the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

Rajib Banerjee, a former minister in West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet had defected to the BJP in January this year. After rejoining the Trinamul, he said that it was his mistake to join the BJP, which according to him gave false promises to the people to gain political and electoral mileage.

“I apologise to Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee and all the people for joining the BJP. I am ashamed and feel guilty to join the BJP. Whatever responsibility the party (Trinamul) gives me, I with all sincerity perform the task,” an emotionally charged Banerjee told the gathering.

Ashis Das, a Scheduled Caste leader and a BJP MLA from the Surma Assembly seat in northern Tripura, took the Trinamul flag from Abhishek Banerjee along with Rajib Banerjee. While praising Mamata Banerjee and slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ashis Das, on October 5 in Kolkata had claimed that people in Tripura have been suffering a lot after the BJP-led government came to power.

The 43-year-old BJP legislator, after shaving his head and performing a ‘yagna’ at the Kalighat temple in Kolkata on October 6, said that political anarchy and chaos were prevailing in the BJP-ruled Tripura where people are unhappy with the performance of the state government. He said, “We are fed up with 25 years misrule of Left Front,so we voted for BJP. But within three and half years BJP had done no development, roads are in shambles and there’s no infrastructure.”

He said chief minister Biplab Deb is running an autocratic government. “So I left BJP, shaved my hair as a sacrifice for joining BJP and today joined Trinamul Congress.”

Rajib Banerjee, who left for the BJP just before elections, complained of suffocation in the Trinamul Congress after the Trinamul Congress’s thumping victory in 2021 Assembly poll was determined to rejoin Trinamul Congress. He came all way to Tripura to rejoin the party in the presence of the party’s national general secretary Àbhishek Banerjee.