3 ex-TMC MPs join BJP; to contest Rajya Sabha bypolls from seats they vacated

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik, the three Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders who resigned from the Rajya Sabha in June, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kolkata on Thursday. The BJP said all three former TMC leaders will contest the July 24 bypolls to the Upper House seats vacated by them.State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya welcomed them to the party at its West Bengal headquarters in Salt Lake and stopped short of confirming whether they would be the party’s candidates.“They are officially joining the party led by Narendra Modi who has steadily taken the nation forward. Right now the only identity of these three persons is that they are BJP workers,” he said.Also Read | Former TMC Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Prakash Chik Baraik join BJP in KolkataAsked about his earlier assertion that no TMC leader would be inducted into the BJP, Bhattacharya said, “This is not a deviation but an exception. Exceptions prove the law. The BJP’s door is closed for TMC leaders who looted the people and those who are tainted.”Roy and Dev used the occasion to launch sharp attacks on the TMC, while Baraik did not speak at the event. “People may raise questions but for me this is an hour of happiness. Bengal, which once led the nation in industry, education and healthcare, turned into a desert during the 34 years of Left rule and 15 years of TMC rule,” Roy said.Claiming that the TMC had failed to read public sentiment after the RG Kar incident, he added, “The party is finished.”TMC is corrupt, says Sushmita DevDev, who joined the TMC from the Congress in 2021, alleged widespread corruption in the TMC. “What I witnessed in the TMC is widespread corruption even at the grassroots level. This level of corruption is not seen in any other party,” she said.The Election Commission announced the Rajya Sabha bypolls on Monday after the three leaders resigned in June following the TMC’s debacle in the assembly elections.Meanwhile, of the 80 TMC candidates who won the April elections, at least 65 have joined the rebel camp headed by Ritabrata Banerjee, whom the Speaker recognised as the leader of the opposition in June.The BJP currently controls three of the 13 Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal. The remaining 10 TMC MPs are all known to be Mamata Banerjee loyalists.