CPI(M) heavyweights keen to join BJP: Partha Chatterjee

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said on Saturday that some heavyweight CPI(M) leaders are keen to join the BJP which has become clear with leaders like Khagen Murmu and Mahfuza Khatun joining the saffron party.

"A number of ground-level and middle-level CPI(M) leaders have been constantly shifting to the BJP for the last few years. But now, we are witnessing that openly with some senior leaders of the party running after the BJP leaders. The cases of Khagen Murmu and Mahfuza Khatun shifting to the saffron party just before the elections is a clear pointer. The leadership lacks organisational strength and the CPI(M) should try to prevent this trend of their party people rubbing shoulders with the BJP," Chatterjee said at 'Meet the Press' programme hosted by Calcutta Press Club. Chatterjee's reactions came in reply to a poser when CPI(M) state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra alleging that TMC and BJP are having a tacit understanding.

"No other leader from the country has been fighting against the anti-people policies of the BJP government so strongly like our party supremo Mamata Banerjee. The people of the country are well aware of this," he reiterated.

It may be mentioned that Murmu, who was the former CPI(M) MLA from Habibpur in Malda, had already contested the Lok Sabha elections from Malda North with a BJP ticket. He had joined the BJP in March. Khatun, who was an elected CPI(M) MLA from Kumarganj Assembly constituency in 2001 and 2006, left the party to contest with a BJP ticket from Jangipur parliamentary constituency. Khatun had, however, lost to Trinamool Congress during the 2011 and 2016 Assembly elections.

Chatterjee alleged that the BJP is trying to influence the functioning of the Election Commission to function in a partial manner.

"I have never seen earlier in Bengal that seven officers at the Inspector level are being removed just before the polls. The BJP knows very well that they will not win a single seat and in frustration, they are trying to use the Commission to do such things," he said.