Several turncoats bring no cheer to saffron camp

KOLKATA: The results of the Assembly elections in Bengal on Sunday presented a crystal clear picture that the Bengal electorates have rejected most of the turncoats, who shifted to BJP ahead of the polls. Several of the defectors suffered defeat, including Rajib Banerjee, Sabyasachi Dutta, Rabindranath Bhattacharjee to name a few.

As many as 34 MLAs had left Trinamool Congress and joined BJP among whom 13 got tickets. Rajib Banerjee, a former minister in Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet, who had defected to BJP in January this year lost to TMC's Kalyanendu Ghosh by 42512 votes. Banerjee was elected twice from Domjur seat in 2011 and 2016.

Rabindranath Bhattacharya who quit TMC in March after being denied a ticket by the ruling party lost to Becharam Manna of TMC by 25933 votes in Singur constituency.

Baishali Dalmiya, who was expelled from the TMC for speaking against the party, lost to Dr Rana Chatterjee from TMC by a margin of 6231 votes.

Sabyasachi Dutta, who had joined BJP in October 2019, lost to Sujit Bose from the Bidhannagar seat by 7997 votes. Two-time MLA Dipak Halder, who had joined the BJP in February this year, lost to Pannalal Halder of TMC.

Rudranil Ghosh, who had joined BJP a few months ago, lost to Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay from the Bhowanipore seat.

Pradip Mazumdar of TMC defeated Diptangshu Chowdhury, another TMC leader and former advisor to Mamata Banerjee from Durgapur Purba seat. Chowdhury had defected to BJP a few months before the polls. Prabir Ghosal, another defector, lost to TMC's Kanchan Mallick.

Somnath Shyam of TMC defeated Arindam Bhattacharya from Jagatdal seat in North 24-Parganas. Bhattachaya, a former footballer, joined BJP in January. Silbhadra Dutta, another defector, lost to late Kajal Sinha of TMC from Khardah seat.

Jitendra Tiwari, a TMC heavyweight who joined the BJP after rebelling against the TMC leadership, lost to Narendranath Chakraborty from Pandabeshwar seat.

Deboprasad Bag defeated Biswajit Kundu, from Kalna seat. Kundu had joined BJP earlier this year. Ironically, Kundu's nomination triggered a mass switch of 70 party workers to the TMC, who protested against Kundu's corruption allegations.

The Election Commission, however, did not declare the final results of the Nandigram seat where turncoat Suvendu Adhikari was pitted against Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee. Adhikari, the former trusted aide and one of the main faces of the Nandigram movement, had joined BJP on December 19. He won on TMC's ticket from Nandigram in 2016.

Mihir Goswami, who had joined BJP a few months back, was the saving grace who won from Natabari seat by defeating Rabindranath Ghosh of TMC.

Mukul Roy who had joined BJP in November 2017 also won against TMC's Koushani Mukherjee from Krishnanagar North. Sankar Ghosh, who had defected from CPI(M) to the BJP, won from Siliguri seat.