Even as the BJP ramps up its activity to recruit more people into its fold, the TMC has been looking to bring back those who had left the party.
Ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal, the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started boosting its membership drive even as the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is focusing on the return of turncoats, Hindustan Times reported.
Over 15 BJP leaders, including Union ministers for states (MoS) Babul Supriyo and Debasree Chaudhuri, tweeted on August 12, urging people to join the party.
Even as the BJP ramps up its activity to recruit more people into its fold, the TMC has been looking to bring back those who had left the party and has, in the past two weeks, managed to engineer some defections in some pockets, the report stated.
For instance, on August 9, Baliram Ekka, who had unsuccessfully contested the Mal assembly seat for BJP, joined TMC along with his followers. He said he was unhappy with the BJP 'ever since he joined' and that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has done a "lot for the welfare of local tea garden workers."
Jaidev Purkait, a former Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader from Canning in South 24 Parganas district, joined TMC along with some booth-level workers of BJP on the same day, the report said.
Apart from these, two other BJP leaders— Sandip Ekka and Biswarup Ghosh— have also joined TMC in recent days. However, the saffron party's state leadership has said it is not giving any importance to these defections.
"TMC is desperate to project before the media that an erosion has started in the BJP before the elections. The fact is that none of these people are heavyweight leaders. Moreover, if 50 people are returning to the TMC, 500 are joining the BJP to replace them. Our numbers are growing by leaps and bounds," BJP's National Secretary Rahul Sinha said, adding that the leaders did not join TMC willingly, but because they faced 'threats and intimidation'.
Udayan Bandopadhyay, a Kolkata-based political analyst, said TMC has used the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic to engineer defections.
"During a pandemic, a state’s ruling party will always enjoy some advantage. It is easier for TMC leaders and workers to work on the field. BJP leaders should be working at the grassroots level to stop this exodus, but their movement is restricted," Bandopadhyay said.