‘Feeling insulted in BJP’: Party’s Bengal SC front chief, a former TMC MLA

Three days after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president Mukul Roy created a stir in Bengal politics by returning to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after 42 months, more ruling party turncoats who joined the saffron camp in the last two years either voiced dissent or kept their options open.

“Mukul Roy, being a senior leader, felt insulted in the BJP for various reasons. I, too, felt insulted and betrayed,” Dulal Bar, president of the BJP’s scheduled caste (SC) morcha (front) in Bengal, told HT on Sunday afternoon.

Bar, a former TMC legislator from Bagdah in North 24 Parganas district, was not given a ticket. He was not seen at any important meeting of the BJP. Prior to the polls, he resigned from the morcha but was somehow pacified by the leadership.

Though the BJP failed to meet its target of winning more than 200 of the state’s 294 seats and bagged only 77, the party was supported by the SC community in several parts of the state. During the 2011 census, the state’s SC population stood at 21.4 million, or 23.51 % of the total population of 91.3 million. The total population is now projected to be 101.9 million.

“If I get an invitation from the TMC I will certainly give it a thought. I will decide my next step in case I don’t get one,” added Bar, who joined the BJP in 2019 and was suspended from the assembly for a year on disciplinary ground after staging a protest on the floor of the House against an alleged attack on another turncoat MLA, Biswajit Das.

In the recent polls, Das, who earlier represented the Bongaon North assembly seat in North 24 Parganas, was fielded by the BJP from the district’s Bagdah seat that Bar represented. Das, who won the seat, on Saturday said, “I have a very cordial relationship with Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee (TMC national general secretary). Time will decide my next course of action.”

Speculations over Das started on September 2, 2020, when he and Sunil Singh, the turncoat MLA from Noapara, who is also a relative of BJP Lok Sabha member Arjun Singh, had a meeting with the chief minister for 20 minutes at her chamber in the state assembly in the presence of two ministers. Das was even seen touching Banerjee’s feet to seek her blessings. A day later, the BJP MLAs were offered security by the state but they declined to take it after senior BJP leaders talked to them.

Das and Singh joined the BJP at the party’s headquarters in Delhi in June 2019, a month after the BJP set a record by winning 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats. Singh lost the election held in March-April.

After Mukul Roy joined the TMC on Friday, Singh said, “Roy is respected by all.”

For 67-year-old Roy, the tryst with the BJP ended because of differences between different lobbies of state and central leaders, said leaders aware of the development. They said although Roy successfully contested the Krishnanagar North seat he had differences with state president Dilip Ghosh.

“Leaving parties has become a habit for many. The BJP depends only on those who toiled and shed blood to strengthen the organisation. One has to sacrifice to stay in the BJP. Those who only want to enjoy power can’t stay. We will not keep them,” Ghosh tweeted on Sunday afternoon.

Leader of the opposition in the assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Mamata Banerjee in the polls, said he would demand action under the anti-defection law if any of the 77 MLAs switched sides.

Explaining the BJP’s stand on TMC turncoats abandoning the saffron camp, state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar said, “We will do nothing if people such as former minister Rajib Banerjee or Sonali Guha (once a close aide of the chief minister) leave the party because they did not win elections. However, the case is quite different for elected representatives.”

“In the last 10 years, the assembly speaker did not take action under the anti-defection law against any of the MLAs who left the Congress and Left parties and joined the TMC. We will not allow that. The law passed by the Parliament mandates that two-third of the elected members of a party have to join another camp to escape the law,” Majumdar added.

No TMC leader commented on the possibility of more BJP MLAs following Mukul Roy’s footsteps. The speaker, Biman Banerjee, did not take calls.

While welcoming Roy and his son, Subhranshu, a former MLA, on Friday, the chief minister said more BJP leaders will join the ruling party in the coming days. But she added a rider. “Traitors who joined the BJP before the elections for money will not be taken back. We will take back only those who do not spread bitterness,” She said.

For the record, Banerjee referred to Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee as “gaddar” (traitor) during the election campaign.

Rajib Banerjee, who stoked speculations on Saturday by meeting TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh, was seen at the funeral of senior minister Partha Chatterjee’s mother on Sunday evening.

BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra said, “It can be easily guessed why Banerjee met Kunal Ghosh but his appearance at the funeral is a different issue. He and Chatterjee are old associates.”

Hazra, on Friday, raised a storm when he talked of lobbies in the Bengal BJP.

“Lobbying in the Bengal unit of the BJP and projecting one or two leaders while ignoring and insulting capable leaders, has had its effect. The Bengal BJP should stop this lobby politics immediately and utilize leaders in accordance to their merit,” Hazra wrote on his social media page.

Incidentally, on June 6, the BJP state unit formed a three-member committee to keep a track on social media posts by party leaders in view of growing dissent.

Political science professor and poll analyst Udayan Bandopadhyay said, “More people are likely to join the TMC but for the sake of fairness, the MLAs should resign from the assembly because they were elected by people who supported the BJP.”