Suvendu joins BJP; 9 MLAs,1 MP also jump ship
Kolkata: Ending weeks of speculation, Suvendu Adhikari along with nine MLAs of different parties and a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP joined the BJP at Union Home minister Amit Shah's rally in Midnapore on Saturday.
Sunil Mondol, Trinamool MP from East Burdwan, also joined the BJP. Three leaders from Congress, CPI and CPI(M) also joined the saffron party.
Trinamool MLAs who joined BJP include Shilbhadra Dutta (Barrackpore), Saikat Panja (East Burdwan), Biswajit Kundu (Kalna), Sukhra Munda (Nagrakata), Banashree Maity (North Contai), Dipali Biswas (Gazole). Former MP Dasrath Tirkey also joined the BJP.
Sanmoy Bandyopadhyay joined the BJP from Congress. Ashok Dinda and Tapashi Mondol, MLAs from CPI and CPI(M) also joined the saffron party. The saffron brigade claimed that altogether 62 leaders and functionaries from different parties have joined the fold.
Kabirul Islam, Secretary, Minority Cell joined BJP. Two minority leaders from Hooghly — Alamgir Molla and Parvez Rahman — joined the BJP along with Karam Hussain Khan from Birbhum.
Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee said Debashis Jana of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and Wahidul Haq have not joined the BJP as claimed by the party.
A senior TMC leader said most of these MLAs have gone to the BJP as they had slim chances of getting tickets in TMC. Dipali Biswas who had joined Trinamool from CPI(M) after 2016 has also joined the BJP.