Kolkata: In yet another ‘Ghar Wapsi’ for Trinamool Congress, BJP Barrackpore MP and party’s vice president Arjun Singh on Sunday rejoined TMC in presence of TMC national secretary Abhishek Banerjee and TMC forest minister Jyotipriyo Mallick and party MLAs Partha Bhowmick, Raj Chakraborty.
With the defection of Singh, the total number of BJP MPs came down to 16 from 18. In September last year, former BJP Asansol MP Babul Supriyo had joined TMC after resigning from MP post.
Soon after defecting to the TMC, Singh addressing the media said that his fight is against the poor condition of the jute mill in the state.
“I have learnt that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November last year over the poor condition of the jute mills. There were 62 jute mills in the state out of which only 12 mills are operational. With the fight of our Chief Minister we have achieved few things and 75 per cent is yet to get about the jute mills from the Central government,” said Singh.
It can be noted that after denying ticket for contesting the Lok Sabha election in 2019, Singh on March 14, 2019 had joined BJP at the national capital and won the parliamentary seat under saffron camp’s ticket.
Joining back to his old party within three years of joining BJP, Singh said that he was with TMC since the party was formed in 1998 and also that due to certain ‘misunderstanding’ he had defected to BJP.
“Everyone will soon see that the countrywide fight will be led by Mamata Banerjee and keeping her ideology in front we all will fight. I am an organizational person and will look after the organization,” mentioned the Barrackpore MP.
Asked whether he will resign from the MP post, to which Singh without naming anyone claimed that if two leaders who are still TMC MP but are in BJP resign then within one hour after that he will visit the Parliament to resign’.
Slamming the Bengal BJP, Singh claimed that BJP in Bengal does ‘social media’ politics.
“Election in Bengal are different in other states. BJP Bengal leaders play politics sitting in AC rooms and in social media. They don’t visit the grassroot. The downfall of BJP in Bengal has started. If TMC wants, entire BJP Bengal leaders would join the TMC,” alleged Singh.
Countering the claims of Singh, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said that when BJP became ‘powerful’ in Bengal several leaders from TMC had joined BJP and are now leaving the party as they want to stay close to the ‘power corridor’.
“If BJP workers don’t visit the grassroot then how did so many BJP workers die? Several cases were slapped against Singh when he was in BJP. Our fight is on and those who want to leave the party can go,” added Ghosh.
Meanwhile, on May 30, Abhishek Banerjee will hold a rally in Barrackpore constituency where Singh along with other leaders of North 24 Parganas will be present.
It can be recalled that soon after Singh became vocal against Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal, Singh had held a couple of meetings with Singh and last Thursday the BJP led central government had revised the price of raw jute.
According to a press release issued by PIB, “The Central Government after careful examination of the market dynamics of raw jute trade has lifted price cap of Rs 6500/- per quintal for TD5 grade of raw jute that was fixed on September 30, 2021 on purchase of raw jute by the Jute Mills and other end users.”
Singh had also held a meeting with BJP national president JP Nadda last week but finally rejoined his old party.
