Gosaba: 97 BJP-supporting families join Trinamool

Kolkata: In a major setback to the BJP, as many as 97 families from Gosaba in South 24-Parganas who were BJP supporters joined Trinamool Congress (TMC).

The development comes at a time when 6 Assembly constituencies in Bengal are going to the by-elections on November 13. The local Trinamool leaders organised a programme at the Kumarmari Panchayat area where the joining took place.

Gosaba block Trinamool convenor and Zilla Parishad Upadhyaksha Animesh Mondal attended the event. Mondal handed over the party flags to the new joiners.

The BJP supporters who have joined the TMC said that the BJP has no organisational base in the region and the party leaders have no credibility.

To carry out development works in the areas they felt the need to join TMC. Senior TMC leaders believe that as the 2026 Assembly elections draw near many BJP leaders will join the ruling party in the state as the BJP has no prospect in Bengal. Meanwhile, in a parallel development in North Bengal BJP leader John Barla, on Thursday, took a veiled swipe at the party’s Alipurduar MP for mismanaging the organisation ahead of the November 13 bypolls but countered speculation that he was about to cross over to the state’s ruling TMC saying he had no such plans

at the moment.

Barla, a former Union minister, has been unhappy for months over the party’s decision to field Manoj Tigga for the Lok Sabha elections from the Alipurduar seat. Barla represented Alipurduar in the Lok Sabha between 2019 and 2024.

“I am staying aloof these days because my party has completely mismanaged its organisation in this region. Everything is being controlled by one man these days. I am concentrating on tribal welfare issues, something I was always associated with,” Barla said, apparently targeting Tigga.