Adding extra to the troubles of the BJP camp in West Bengal, social gathering’s vice-president and Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh rejoined the Trinamool Congress on Sunday, calling it a “homecoming” to his former social gathering with which “problems have now been sorted”.
Singh was welcomed into the ruling social gathering by nationwide normal secretary Abhishek Banerjee at his workplace in south Kolkata.
“Extending a warm welcome to Shri@ArjunsinghWB, who rejected the divisive forces at @BJP4Indiaand joined the @AITCofficial family today. People across the nation are suffering and they need us now more than ever. Let’s keep the fight alive!” Banerjee stated in a tweet.
Singh is among the many largest leaders to return to the TMC, which they abandoned for the BJP forward of the elections to the Lok Sabha in 2019 and the Assembly in 2021.
Singh’s return is prone to set off an exodus to the social gathering by BJP staff, and his son and BJP’s Bhatpara MLA Pawan Singh. “Pawan would have been with me here today. He is unwell, so he couldn’t be physically present. He will join the TMC,” Singh stated in the course of the induction.
Singh, who had been part of the TMC since its inception in 1998, stated “some misunderstandings” made him sever ties with the social gathering three years in the past. “The problems have now been sorted out, and we will work as one family under the leadership of (Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee,” he stated.
One of the distinguished Hindi-speaking leaders of the TMC, Singh had joined the saffron camp forward of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, and went on to win from the Barrackpore LS seat.
The BJP unit within the state has been preventing laborious to maintain its flock collectively after former Union minister Babul Supriyo and 5 legislators, together with nationwide vice-president Mukul Roy, converted to the TMC because the meeting ballot outcomes final yr. Several senior TMC leaders like Rajib Banerjee and Sabyasachi Dutta, who had joined the saffron camp, too, returned to the Mamata Banerjee-led social gathering.
On why he selected to stop the BJP, Singh stated the Union authorities was neglecting the jute trade of West Bengal, an allegation he has been making in the previous few weeks. “Despite my protest over the Centre’s jute policy, nothing much has been achieved. The government recently took a step, but that is only a minor measure. We still have a long way to go,” he stated.
Singh’s feedback come days after he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal after the Centre introduced its determination to withdraw the notification capping uncooked jute costs at Rs 6,500 per quintal, a requirement he and different trade stakeholders had been urgent for.
He additionally criticised the saffron camp for its “armchair” politics, and stated those that lack the understanding about strengthening the organisation are calling the photographs within the social gathering.
“The Bengal BJP needs to come out of Facebook and AC-room politics. In Bengal, if you want to build an organisation, you have to hit the streets and mix with the masses. Issuing sermons won’t work,” he stated at a press convention right here.
Singh had not too long ago slammed the state BJP management for not permitting him to work regardless of holding a senior place within the social gathering. Asked if he would resign as BJP MP, Singh stated he would observe swimsuit as soon as two TMC MPs, who snapped all ties with the ruling social gathering and are hobnobbing with the saffron camp, put of their papers, in an obvious reference to TMC lawmakers from Kanthi and Tamluk – Sisir Adhikari and Dibyendu Adhikari.
“There are two TMC MPs… who are yet to resign. Let them take that step, and I will resign within an hour,” he asserted.
The TMC claims that Sisir, father of BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari, had joined the BJP forward of the 2021 meeting polls, and had demanded that he ought to resign. Dibyendu, the youthful brother of Suvendu, has been sustaining a distance from the TMC because the final meeting polls.
Meanwhile, reacting to Singh’s switchover, the West Bengal unit of the BJP stated desertions of “opportunists” won’t affect the social gathering. “The BJP is a party that is based on an ideology; desertions of people who love to stay close to power won’t have any impact on the growth of the party,” BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya stated.
BJP nationwide vice-president Dilip Ghosh stated Singh’s determination may have been prompted by the “vindictive action” of the TMC authorities to register a number of circumstances in opposition to him after he joined the saffron social gathering.
“Being a businessman, it was getting difficult for him to survive without pledging loyalty to the TMC supremo,” Ghosh, the previous president of the state BJP unit, stated.
The opposition Congress and the CPI(M) stated the event proves that the TMC and the BJP are two sides of the identical coin. “Earlier, TMC leaders joined the BJP, which is now just the opposite. It goes to show that both the parties have no ideology, and are two sides of one coin,” CPI(M) chief Sujan Chakraborty stated.
Speaking in an identical vein, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury stated the “TMC-BJP nexus” in Bengal now stands uncovered.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”