Six-seven BJP MPs will join TMC before Assembly polls, claims Mamata's minister

KOLKATA: Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mullick on Wednesday claimed that at least six BJP MPs, who had earlier quit TMC to join the saffron camp, will join the ruling party before the assembly polls.

Mullick said the MLA from Bankura Tushar Bhattacharya, who joined the BJP, rejoined the TMC on Tuesday. "The MLAs, who had shifted their political alignment to the BJP, are queuing up to come back. Wait and watch and you will see the exodus from the BJP," said Mullick. 

He tweeted: "Six-seven MPs will immediately join TMC within the first week of May, before the elections. Even all the MLAs who'd left us, have queued up for rejoining. Tushar babu, the MLA from Bankura rejoined yesterday."

Six-seven MPs will immediately join TMC within the first week of May, before the elections. Even all the MLAs who'd left us, have queued up for rejoining. Tushar babu, the MLA from Bankura rejoined yesterday: West Bengal minister Jyotipriya Mallick pic.twitter.com/tt2BiaKxCt

— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2021

On December 19, six TMC MLAs and one MP joined the BJP in presence of Union Home minister Amit Shah in an East Midnapore rally last month. Though the saffron camp secured victory in three seats in the 2016 Assembly elections, the party has now a strength of 25 MLAs with the turncoats defected from the TMC, Left Front, and Congress. 

The Bengal BJP, however, rubbished the claim. "The TMC is daydreaming. The real picture is the opposite. A massive exodus from the ruling party will take place shortly. Several MLAs are expressing their discontent publicly and they are all set to come under the fold of the BJP," said BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh.