KOLKATA: Over 400 BJP workers joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) in different parts of the state on Friday. More than 300 BJP workers joined TMC in Islampur in North Dinajpur district. Kanaiah Lal Agarwal, TMC district president handed over the party flag to them.
The BJP workers alleged that they could not work freely as the local leaders had no power and the Central leadership intervened in each and every local matter. They said during the election, the local leaders had not been consulted and the central leaders prepared the schedule of Prime Minister and Union Home minister keeping the local leaders in the dark. The situation was so pathetic that the local leaders often got the news from the police or local media.
Earlier, eight important BJP leaders in Alipurduar including the district president Ganga Prasad Sharma had joined the TMC, affecting the saffron party's organisation in the district heavily. Though the BJP did well in North Bengal in the Assembly election than in South Bengal, the mass exodus would affect the party's organisation and it would be difficult to organise movements, political experts said.
In Domjur, about 35 BJP workers joined TMC in presence of local MLA Kalyan Ghosh. The workers had joined the BJP with Rajib Banerjee. They left home after the Assembly election results were announced fearing attack. Trinamool leaders brought them back home and helped them to settle down.
Meanwhile, posters have been put up near the ancestral house of Sunil Mondol at Kanksa in East Burdwan, referring to him as a traitor. Modol won from East Burdwan in 2019 Lok Sabha election and joined BJP in February 2021 at a function in presence of Amit Shah in East Midnapore.
Dilip Ghosh, the state BJP president, said these workers had joined the party hoping that it would come to power. "It is good that such opportunist workers leave the party. Their presence or absence will not affect the party in any way," he maintained.