The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a blow in Bengal on Sunday when party MP Arjun Singh returned to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after 38 months.
The Lok Sabha member from Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district and vice-president of BJP’s Bengal state committee joined the party in presence of TMC’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee at his Camac Street office in Kolkata.
TMC national general secretary and chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee welcomed Singh into the TMC fold at his office on Camac Street in south Kolkata.
The TMC uploaded photos of Singh’s joining on social media at 5.45 pm but Banerjee did not appear at the press conference that followed, which was seen as a marked departure from the norm.
The announcement was made by TMC’s Naihati legislator Partha Bhowmick in the presence of forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick and other legislators from North 24 Parganas.
“I was inducted by Abhishek Banerjee under instructions from Mamata Banerjee. I returned to the home where I belonged. I left because of some misunderstandings. I left the BJP because of the treatment being meted out to Bengal. Our jute industry is suffering because of the Centre,” Singh said at the press conference.
“Warmly welcoming former Vice President of @BJP4Bengal and MP from Barrackpore, Shri @ArjunsinghWB into the All India Trinamool Congress family. He joins us today in the presence of our National General Secretary Shri @abhishekaitc,” the TMC said on its official Twitter handle.
Singh, a famous Hindi-speaking TMC politician, joined the saffron camp just before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and went on to win the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat.
Speaking to ANI before of his anticipated big jump, Arjun Singh declined to divulge his cards but said that the BJP had some shortcomings in areas like West Bengal and Kerala. He also stated that he will meet with the state administration to discuss the work of the Labor Department. However, news of his acceptance into TMC arrived soon after.
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