Kolkata: Weeks after resigning from the Rajya Sabha MP posts and quitting Trinamool Congress (TMC), three former TMC Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Prakash Chik Baraik on Thursday had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kolkata.
BJP state president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya welcomed the leaders at the party's Salt Lake office.
Welcoming the leaders and calling it a ‘joyous occasion’, Bhattacharya said that the former TMC MPs have expressed faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“In 34 years of Left Front rule followed by 15 years of TMC rule instead of cooperative federalism, the state had witnessed a politics of confrontation with the central government. Now these former parliamentarians have kept faith in Modi and after leaving their posts and resigning from TMC have joined the BJP,” said Bhattacharya.
The BJP state president also made it clear that those TMC leaders who are allegedly ‘corrupt’ and did ‘wrong’ with the people will not be welcomed in the saffron camp.
After joining BJP Sushmita Dev mentioned that she was ‘surprised’ to see the ‘widespread corruption’ in TMC.
Reacting to the development, TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh said TMC had given Sukhendu Sekhar Ray ‘political opportunities’ that he did not receive before joining the TMC.
Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee said that soon he will have a word with all the three former TMC MPs who had defected to the BJP.
“Out of the three who had joined BJP, one is very senior to me and has always guided me. Sushmita is my friend and Prakash is my younger brother. They thought of joining BJP for which they have joined. Soon I will speak with them,” said the LoP.
On the other hand, renowned Bengali actor Prosenjit Chattopadhyay went to the state secretariat Nabanna to meet Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Speculations were high that Chattopadhyay might join BJP after Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Chattopadhyay’s residence on July 6.
After meeting Adhikari, the veteran actor said that he went to meet the Chief Minister to speak about the Bengali film industry.
“I am assuring everyone that not a single political conversation took place between us. I spoke about the film industry and certain problems when we go to shoot outside the state. I also told him to plan something big to celebrate 100 th birth anniversary of ace actor Uttam Kumar. If any committee is opened on the film industry and if I am kept, I will definitely give my advice for the betterment of the industry,” added Chattopadhyay.
Meanwhile, some TMC MPs who recently defected to NCPI including Yousuf Pathan and Satabdi Roy were also seen at Nabanna.
