A month after Mamata Banerjee’s victory, many defectors who abandoned the Chief Minister of Bengal to join hands with the BJP are expressing interest in retreating their steps.
The mass exit of Trinamool leaders just weeks and months before the state elections had mounted pressure on Ms Banerjee as she was challenged to win the polls opposite the ever-increasing member count of BJP, filled up with people who left her party. The issue had heated up so much so that the massive outflux sparked talks of Trinamool Congress’s downfall.
However, Mamata Banerjee’s party slammed the opposition after securing 213 assembly seats from 292, leaving just 77 to the BJP.
As the May 2nd results brought her back to power, several defectors are now looking at rejoining Trinamool. The new reverse entry trend seems to be starting with former MLA Sonali Guha who said she feels like “fish out of water” now after leaving the Trinamool party in March. A similar melodramatic story is with footballer turned politician Dipendu Biswas. In a letter addressed to Ms Banerjee today, he said he wants to “take the TMC flag again”. As per a PTI report, Sarala Murmu and Amal Acharya are other people who expressed their interest in jumping back from BJP.
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According to rumours, Rajib Banerjee, who held the post of a minister during his time in Ms Banerjee’s government until he left the party weeks before the elections, is also thinking of returning.
“Not only leaders, seven-to-eight winning MLAs and 3-4 sitting MPs of the BJP have expressed their wish to join the Trinamool Congress,” NDTV reported Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh saying. He did not disclose any further details and said the party leadership hasn’t taken a decision on it yet.
“But we have to honour the sentiments of party cadres, too. These leaders left the party just before elections and the workers and leaders managed to win the election under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee,” Mr Ghosh said.
As of now, Mukul Roy is the top name considering a return to TMC, according to the buzz. Though the leader hasn’t spoken anything about the matter till now, his son’s recent Facebook post seemed to be criticizing BJP.
However, the BJP denied one of the oldest Trinamool leader’s consideration of exit report.
Speaking about the migrations back to Trinamool, West Bengal BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya said, “There was a perception that the BJP is coming to power and the Trinamool will lose power. A lot of people joined our party crying and now they are leaving laughing. People are watching this. People can see why they came to us and why they are leaving.”
Senior leaders who joined BJP have kept mum on the matter and only a few leaders have publicly come out to express their interest.
