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In a bid to expose the alleged nexus between the ruling Trinamool Congress and Left Front, the state BJP is mulling bringing six former Tripura Trinamool MLAs, who had recently joined BJP, to campaign for the party in West Bengal.
Rebel Trinamool MLAs Sudip Roy Barman, Asish Saha, Pranjit Singha Roy, Diba Chandra Hrankhawal, Dilip Sarkar and Biswa Bandhu Sen had joined the BJP at a public meeting in Agartala on Monday. They had met BJP national president Amit Shah in New Delhi on Saturday before joining the party.
On July 3, Trinamool had severed all ties with these MLAs after they expressed their desire to vote for NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked all party MPs and MLAs to vote for Opposition’s presidential candidate Meira Kumar, the six MLAs had said they would not vote for someone supported by the Left Front. Following this, they were expelled from Trinamool. Earlier, too, protesting against the Congress’ electoral understanding with CPM ahead of the 2016 Bengal polls, these six MLAs had quit Congress and joined Trinamool.
“There is no immediate plan to bring them (the six MLAs) here. But we must try to bring them to West Bengal to expose both Left Front and Trinamool,” BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said.
With Trinamool and CPM-led Left Front coming together to support Meira Kumar, BJP has been alleging a nexus between the two.
“Even in the recent civic polls, we have witnessed both parties contesting after entering into a tacit understanding to prevent the rise of BJP. All Opposition parties are coming together to stop BJP. It is time that the nexus is exposed,” said BJP president Dilip Ghosh.
Sources in the BJP said chances are high that the six MLAs would campaign for the party in West Bengal. “Firstly, they are well aware of the politics pursued by both Trinamool and Left Front, as the latter is in power in Tripura. Secondly, they were with Trinamool, which will help us put pressure on the ruling party in Bengal.
Lastly, they are from a Bengali speaking state, which will help them communicate better with the people of West Bengal,” said a senior BJP leader.
The leader added that the Tripura MLAs are likely to campaign for BJP in next year’s panchayat elections, likely to be held ahead of the Assembly polls in Tripura.
