BJP fields three ex-TMC MPs for Rajya Sabha hours after inducting them

Former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Prakash Chik Baraik and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday. Hours later, the BJP nominated them to the Rajya Sabha.

Dev, Baraik and Roy had resigned as Rajya Sabha MPs in June. On Thursday, they were inducted into the BJP in the presence of state party president Samik Bhattacharya.

The TMC has been grappling with factionalism after its loss in the West Bengal Assembly elections in May.

On June 14, a delegation of 20 TMC MPs met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and requested that their group be merged with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens’ Party, which is a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to Birla on June 19, demanding that the rebel MPs be disqualified.

On June 3, nearly 60 out of the TMC’s 80 MLAs rebelled against the party leadership to choose Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of the Opposition in the House.

Recently, on July 5, former West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, who was a key loyalist of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, resigned from all party posts.

After joining the BJP, Devi said that the “massive wins” of the BJP in West Bengal and Assam prove that the “faith of the public in...

Read more