The return of the defectors is key as the Trinamool preps for 2024 Lok Sabha election. (Representational)
Highlights
- Biswajit Das had moved to the BJP just before the election.
- His homecoming comes after the return of MLAs Tanmay Ghosh and Mukul Roy
- The return of defectors is key as Trinamool preps for 2024 election
Bengal BJP MLA Biswajit Das, today switched to the ruling Trinamool Congress, becoming the third BJP lawmaker to return since Mamata Banerjee's big victory in the April-May state polls.
The "homecoming" is expected to gather pace in the coming weeks with some heavyweights who quit the Trinamool expected to quit the BJP now and rejoin the mothership before Durga Puja in October.
A Mukul Roy loyalist, Biswajit Das was a Trinamool MLA from Bongaon North in 2016 and had followed him to the BJP in 2019.
Mukul Roy, who joined BJP in 2017, returned to the Trinamool this June after victory on a BJP ticket from the Krishnanagar seat.
Like many others who claim to have "realized their mistake", Mr Das, who is elected MLA from Bagda in North 24 Parganas, has now joined the reverse tide from the BJP to Mamata Banerjee's party.
Just yesterday, Tanmay Ghosh, another Trinamool leader who had moved to the BJP and won the elections from the Bishnupur seat, returned to the Trinamool.
With the return of the "prodigals" as it were, the Trinamool has signaled its willingness to take back defectors.
Bringing them back is key as the Trinamool preps for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. It wants to prevent a repeat of 2019, when the BJP scored big gains at Trinamool's cost. Mukul Roy had a big hand in it, but the BJP could not sustain the gains by the time it came to the state election.
Mamata Banerjee won a third term with the Trinamool winning 213 of the state's 294 assembly seats. The BJP put up a tough challenge but was limited to a distant second, with 77 seats. With the latest exit, the BJP's strength in the assembly is down to 72.
Two sitting MPs who won the state polls, Nishith Pramanik and Jayanta Roy, resigned as MLAs, choosing to remain Members of Parliament. Bypolls to their seats have yet to be held.