Bengal MP who ‘joined’ BJP now backs TMC in Lok Sabha

KOLKATA: East Burdwan MP Sunil Mondal, who allegedly defected to the BJP from Trinamool Congress last year, continued to send ghar-wapsi feelers as he joined TMC parliamentarians in a protest over the Pegasus issue at Lok Sabha on Monday. The MP has also urged the Centre to withdraw his security cover.
“I was with the Trinamool and will remain with the party in the future. I joined my party (TMC) colleagues against the Pegasus spyware in Lok Sabha today. They (the BJP-led government at the Centre) are violating our personal space and that is against the spirit of the Constitution. We cannot let that happen,” Mondal said. “It is a free country where every individual has the right to privacy. There cannot be any infringement upon that,” he added.
Rumours about Mondal’s political future grew louder in the morning after the MP wrote a letter to the CRPF, seeking withdrawal of his security detail. He said he was not in a position to maintain the security provided to him by the home ministry.
On December 19, 2020, Mondal was seen at a rally with Union home minister Amit Shah. Trinamool MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay wrote a letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, seeking Mondal’s disqualification. Bandyopadhyay had said the leader had not submitted his resignation, but his participation in a BJP rally was proof that he had given up his Trinamool membership.
Mondal on Monday said the fact that he was seen with Shah was “not conclusive evidence” to prove that he had switched sides. “There was a misunderstanding, and Sudip-da wanted to know if I am still with the TMC. There were some emotional issues, but there was no confusion over my political position,” he said.