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Bengal

Dinhata: BJP's dist secy joins Trinamool

KOLKATA: In a major blow to the saffron camp ahead of the bypoll in Dinhata constituency in Cooch Behar district, the party's district secretary Sudeb Karmakar joined Trinamool Congress (TMC).

The by-election will be held on October 30. Earlier, BJP workers belonging to 263 families from Dinhata Block II had joined Trinamool Congress.

The BJP supporters, who are residents of Dinhata Block 2 Nayarhat Gobarpara Gram Panchayat, joined Trinamool Congress at a function held on Saturday. Udayan Guha, TMC candidate for the by-election and chairman of the party in Cooch Behar district handed over the flag to them. Mumtaz Begum, pradhan, Nayarhat Gram Panchayat and party leaders, including Mir Humayun Kabir and Ajijun Rahaman were also present at the joining ceremony.

Before the state Assembly polls, several supporters of TMC had defected to BJP after the saffron party gave them an impression that it would come to power in Bengal. After the results were announced on May 2, the turncoat workers became disillusioned and started switching over to the TMC again.

In the last Assembly polls, Nisith Pramanick, the BJP candidate from Dinhata, had defeated Udayan Guha of Trinamool by 57 votes. Later, Pramanick did not take oath, which made by-election in the constituency mandatory.

Trinamool has fielded Guha as its candidate for the by-election. People in Dinhata are not happy with the BJP after Pramanick did not take oath. He is now the Union minister of state for Home Affairs.

In the past five months, he had come to the area only twice. The BJP does not have any strong organisation in the area.

Meanwhile, Firhad Hakim, state Transport minister, who had addressed a meeting in Dinhata urged people to vote for Guha to support the all round development taken up by Mamata Banerjee. Guha comes from a politically-conscious family. His father, late Kamal Guha, was the state Agriculture minister during the Left Front regime and a Forward Bloc leader. Guha was an MLA from 2016 to 2021. He was elected as an MLA as a Forward Bloc candidate in 2011. Later, he joined Trinamool in 2015.

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