Tushar Kanti Bhattacharjee back in TMC

Kolkata/Bankura: In an outright embarrassment to the state BJP unit, a senior leader and MLA who had joined the saffron party after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls rejoined TMC on Friday.

Tushar Kanti Bhattacharjee had won from Bishnupur seat in the 2016 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket and joined TMC in July that year. He had, however, not quit his Assembly seat.

After BJP's spectacular performance in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, when it won 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, Bhattacharjee joined BJP at its national headquarters in the presence of BJP national secretary and Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya.

However, within a year Bhattacharjee is back in TMC.

"I had no grudge against TMC. I was upset with the party on certain issues which have now been resolved. I am happy to return to the TMC." Bhattacharjee said at the programme at Bishnupur in Bankura district where he rejoined TMC.

TMC district chairman Subhasis Batabyal and district president Shyamal Santra handed over the party flag to Bhattacharjee at the programme.

Seven TMC MLAs and one each of Congress and CPI(M) have switched over to BJP since the results of Lok Sabha polls were announced in May and the saffron party wooed rival party leaders to bolster its strength in the run-up to the next assembly polls in the state, due in April-May 2021.

Bhattacharjee is the first of the nine MLAs to return to TMC.

The development comes days after Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee gave a call to the party's disgruntled leaders to return to its fold and put up a united fight against the BJP.