Bengal Politics Bengal: 5 Trinamool Congress MLAs, 14 Malda Zilla Parishad members join BJP
Kolkata/IBNS: In an apparent setback for West Bengal's ruling party, five sitting Trinamool Congress MLAs and 14 members of Malda Zilla Parishad Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the poll-bound state.
The five MLAs are Sonali Guha (Satgachia), Sital Sardar (Sankrail), Jatu Lahiri (Shibpur), Rabindranath Bhattacharya (Singur) and Dipendu Biswas (Basirhat Dakshin).
However, all the MLAs were denied tickets to contest the upcoming polls by the Trinamool.
Actor Tnusree Chakraborty has also joined the saffron brigade on the same day.
The BJP has also wrested power in Malda Zilla Parishad as with 14 new inductions, the saffron party's tally has touched the majority (19).
Malda is one of the districts where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari, who in Dec 2020 crossed over from the Trinamool to BJP, was in-charge.
The defections in Malda would further dampen the ruling party's spirit in the district where the Trinamool is not much strong yet.
In her last visit to Malda, Banerjee had appealed to people of Malda not to turn their faces away from the Trinamool and vote in favour of it in large numbers.
"There will be more defections in the course of time," said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh at the joining.
On whether the turncoats would be given tickets by the BJP, Ghosh said, "We haven't promised anything."
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