West Bengal: Arjun Singh's exit may trigger BJP exodus

BARRACKPORE: Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh's return to the Trinamool Congress fold after 39 months is likely to trigger an exodus to the party by BJP workers, and his son and BJP's Bhatpara MLA Pawan Singh, senior leaders said.
Singh on Sunday said: "Pawan would have been with me here today (during the induction into TMC). He is unwell, so he couldn't be physically present. He will join TMC."
Along with Singh and his son, several key loyalists who had followed the duo to BJP from Trinamool are likely to return.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's rally on May 30 is likely to witness several such defections among local leaders.
"BJP is an organisation limited to Facebook. There is inconvenience working in the party. Lots of people want to join Trinamool Congress; if there is a clearance from here, the names will be revealed," Singh said.
TMC leader Jyotipriya Mallick said: "Arjun Singh shouldn't have left Trinamool. But it is a moral victory for our party. If everyone comes back under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, we will welcome them."
For locals, the developments come with the hope of respite from the dogged political streetfights over the past months that threatened to become routine.
According to sources, during Singh's three-year tenure as BJP MP, around 87 criminal cases were slapped on him at several police stations in the Barrackpore-Titagarh belt.
Singh has been a formidable force in Barrackpore and has been in TMC since its inception. Having worked in jute mills, it was only a matter of time until he took up their cause when he became a Congress councillor in 1995 and then a trade union leader to be reckoned with in the Barrackpore-Titagarh belt. His father was a former Congress Bhatpara MLA.
In TMC, Arjun took the reins of the party's trade wing, INTTUC, and then was elected Bhatpara MLA in 2001. Over the last two decades, Arjun (a four-time MLA) and then son Pawan (a two-time MLA) have never lost Bhatpara. In March 2019, he had severed his 21-year-old ties with Trinamool to join BJP and was rewarded with a Lok Sabha nomination.