Kolkata: Fuelling new speculation, two turncoat legislators to the BJP met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the West Bengal Assembly on Monday.
Sunil Singh, the MLA of Noapara and Biswajit Das of Bongaon North in North 24 Parganas held a closed-door meeting for twenty hours with Mamata Banerjee at her chamber in the West Bengal assembly, where she had gone to attend the ongoing budget session. Das was even seen touching Banerjee’s feet to seek her blessings.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mayor Firhad Hakim and West Bengal food and supplies Minister Jyoti Priyo Mullick were also present at the meeting.
Asked about their return to the ruling Trinamool Congress, Das claimed that he had met Banerjee to discuss some pending development projects in his Bongaon North constituency.
“I met her because she is the leader of the ruling party,” said Das refusing to confirm any speculation about his return to the Trinamool Congress.
Incidentally, the speculations started over Jyoti Priyo Mullick’s presence in the closed-door meeting as Mullick is also the president of the TMC’s North 24 Parganas unit and has earlier records of successfully getting back many defectors.
Sunil Singh, who is the brother-in-law of BJP heavyweight leader and MP Arjun Singh did not comment on the meeting and left the assembly after flashing a victory sign.
Notably, a month after the last parliamentary election’s results were announced, the MLAs, Singh and Das, had joined the BJP at the party’s headquarters in Delhi in June 2019.
However, the BJP senior leaders didn’t come out clear about this meeting.
Rubbishing a political motive behind the meet, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh claimed that the BJP had a prior hang about the same.
Trying to avoid the issue, BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy stated that Mamata Banerjee being a senior leader, anyone can touch her feet.
According to sources, soon after the two legislators left the West Bengal Assembly, they were summoned to the BJP’s Hastings office where BJP West Bengal observer Kailash Vijaywargiya held a closed-door meeting with the two before the facilitation program of the newly-inducted leaders.
It is pertinent to mention that in the constant exodus from the ruling Trinamool Congress to the saffron camp, the number of MLAs had increased from three to 30. The BJP had only three MLAs in West Bengal after the 2016 Assembly polls. In the last one and a half years, more than 20 MLAs from the TMC, Left parties, and the Congress have defected to the BJP.
