Nandigram: 3 workers return to TMC hours after joining BJP

Kolkata: Amid a wave of rebellion and dissent across districts over BJP’s candidate nominations for the upcoming Assembly elections—already a major embarrassment for the saffron camp—fresh defections have only added insult to injury.

“Jumping boats” has become rampant, especially with elections nearing. This time too, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and its principal Opposition BJP are locked in an intense psychological and political tug of war.

Interestingly, three TMC activists from Nandigram Assembly Constituency—Seikh Saibul, Jaan E Alam and Sheikh Shahajahan—on Sunday morning joined BJP in the presence of Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari, who is also the BJP candidate from the same seat. In a quick turn of events, they returned to the TMC the same evening.

All of them hail from the Boyal area under Nandigram II block. They returned to the TMC in the presence of its Nandigram candidate, Pabitra Kar, who recently switched over from the BJP.

TMC leaders in the areas alleged that the BJP “lured” them with false promises. Earlier, the ruling party gave a masterstroke by fielding Pabitra Kar, a former BJP Panchayat chief and once a close associate of Suvendu Adhikari, as a candidate from the Nandigram seat soon after he rejoined the ruling party.

Kar, who quit the TMC in November 2020 to join the BJP, played a significant role in consolidating the saffron party’s organisational structure in the Boyal-I area.

Protests have been reported from North to South Bengal for the BJP. Be it Hooghly, North 24-Parganas, East Midnapore and Kolkata. Party workers from at least half-a-dozen constituencies, including some from Kolkata, have visited the state BJP office in Salt Lake to express their unhappiness. In many Assembly constituencies, BJP workers have opposed the candidates.

Meanwhile, the BJP national president Nitin Nabin will meet the party’s state leadership on Tuesday to assess election preparedness amid growing discontent within the ranks over candidate selection for many seats.