Kolkata: New speculation started amidst the saffron camp after BJP MP Saumitra Khan left the WhatsApp group of the BJP.
At a time when the ‘turncoat’ leaders of the BJP are expressing their interest in joining back the ruling Trinamool Congress, new speculation started after the BJP Bishnupur MP left the party's Whatsapp group.
However, Khan confirmed that though he had left the media group he is not quitting the party.
“I am very much with the BJP and I am not quitting the party. Leaving the WhatsApp group doesn’t mean that I will leave the party as well. When I defected to the BJP in 2019 no MP or MLAs from the TMC had joined the BJP,” claimed Saumitra.
Speculation intensified after Sumitra skipped the organizational meeting at Bishnupur with West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh.
Asked about giving the meeting amiss, the Bishnupur MP said that due to the pandemic and lockdown he is staying indoors but his men are visiting places and distributing sanitizers and masks as directed by the saffron camp.
Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said though not in person, he had met Saumitra on a virtual platform and took stock of the area.
“Saumitra’s wife had defected back to the ruling Trinamool Congress but she didn’t gain anything post defection,” added Dilip.
Notably, ahead of the recently concluded Assembly poll, wife of Saumitra, Sujata Mandal had defected back to the TMC that led to divorce between the two.
“The BJP doesn’t have any direction and they only forced Saumitra to file divorce case against me. Now, I am hopeful that Saumitra gets back to senses and hopefully he will apologize to the TMC supremo and will get back. The way BJP maligned a woman, the same way the women of the state gave landslide victory to our mother Mamata Banerjee,” claimed Sujata who contested from Arambagh constituency and lost to BJP’s Madhusudan Bag.
On the other side, another turncoat leader Prabir Ghoshal who had joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls on Saturday said that he is miffed with the BJP leaders as no one from the saffron camp called him when his mother passed away.
“TMC leaders including newly inducted MLA of Uttarpara Kanchan Mullick called me to show empathy. Even the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condoled my mother’s death but no one except the local BJP leaders showed me sympathy,” claimed Prabir.
However, rubbishing the claim, BJP chief Dilip Ghosh claimed that the district BJP president was always in touch with Prabir and also urged that in this trying time no one should fight within the BJP.
Meanwhile, after Sarala Murmu, another Malda Zilla Parishad member Dollyrani Mandal wrote a letter to TMC’s Mausam Noor expressing interest to join the ruling party.
