BJP state president in West Bengal Dilip Ghosh on Friday gave hint of another mass defection from TMC to BJP during Amit Shah’s tour of Kolkata, beginning later in the day.
“Of course, there will be some surprise. In Delhi Modi ji is surprising everyone with his development, here BJP is surprising everyone with its organisation. There’ll be more surprises ahead of the election,” Ghosh was seen saying on ETV Bharat West Bengal.
About the probable TMC leaders likely to switch loyalty, the Midnapore MP said, “Since a change is coming, lots of people are trying to join BJP. Our doors are open.”
“We don’t have a complete list yet but it’ll be something big. But there’ll be surprises. Amit Shah loves to give surprise,” he added.
If reports in Bengali media are to be believed, Bally MLA Vaishali Dalmiya, Uttarpara legislator Prabir Ghoshal alongside some other former TMC leaders are likely to join BJP. Both Dalmiya and Ghoshal have been expelled by the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
However, the biggest defection could be of Rajib Banerjee, who on Friday tendered his resignation as Domjur MLA. He reached the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, where he wrote his resignation letter and handed it over to speaker Biman Banerjee.
Banerjee had already given up his post as the West Bengal Forest Minister last week. Reportedly, he is set to quit his TMC membership later in the day.
However, he continued to sustain the rumours about his political future and said that he would clarify everything tomorrow.
Banerjee was the third minister to resign from the West Bengal government in a month. He had been skipping cabinet meetings and had expressed his dissent over the functioning of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party. He had complained about ‘some leaders in the Trinamool Congress (TMC)’ carrying out propaganda against him. Senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee had held two rounds of talks with him.
On January 16, in a Facebook live, Rajib had said, “I wanted to do some good work for the people but failed because of some persons in the party.”
In December, Suvendu Adhikari, who was considered a close aide to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, quit the government and joined the BJP along with a large number of other TMC leaders and workers.
On January 5, state sports minister Laxmi Ratan Shukla resigned saying he is ‘taking a break from politics.’