Trinamool turncoats fail BJP in Bengal polls, Suvendu & Mukul Roy the few face savers

Of the 148 defectors from Trinamool Congress that got BJP tickets, including over a dozen sitting MLAs, only six have won, leading to more disgruntlement within the saffron party.

File photos of TMC turncoat leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, who fought on BJP tickets and managed to win. | Photo: ANI

Kolkata: Nearly all of Trinamool Congress (TMC) turncoats lost the West Bengal assembly election Sunday, save a couple of big names — Suvendu Adhikari, who is a former close aide of caretaker Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Mukul Roy, former TMC general secretary — who managed to scrape through.

In the months preceding the March-April election, 25 MLAs and many senior TMC leaders defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). According to BJP insiders, 148 defectors from TMC, including over a dozen sitting MLAs, got tickets. But only six (4 per cent) have won.

Former minister Rajib Banerjee, ex-Howrah mayor Rathindranath Chakraborty and former International Cricket Council (ICC) chief Jagmohan Dalmiya’s daughter Baishali Dalmiya are among those who have been unsuccessful in the switch.

Banerjee’s defeat appears the biggest as he not only lost his own seat Domjur in Howrah by 42,512 votes, but all 16 seats in the district to TMC, which he was managing.

Sabyasachi Dutta, former TMC MLA and mayor of Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) Municipal Corporation, lost to TMC minister Sujit Bose by 7,758 votes.

Dipak Haldar, ex-Diamond Harbour MLA who moved to the BJP in December, lost to TMC’s Pannalal Haldar by 16,996 votes. Diamond Harbour is the Lok Sabha constituency of Abhishek Banerjee, who is the nephew of the CM.

However, some turncoats have also been successful in their move, including the giant slayer Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in a close thriller.

Mukul Roy, who fought an election after over two decades, won in Nadia’s Krishnanagar North by 35,809 votes. However, his son Subhranshu Roy, who contested from Roy’s home turf Bijpur as a BJP candidate, lost.

Other turncoats Mihir Goswami and BJP MP Arjun Singh’s son Pawan Singh also won the election.

Goswami won big in Cooch Behar’s Natabari, where he defeated Rabindranath Ghosh, the district-in-charge and state’s north Bengal development minister.

Defectors seen as ‘gaddars’

A senior TMC leader said the defectors were seen as “gaddars” (traitors) by the people.

“They became MLA as they had Didi’s [Mamata Banerjee] face on their posters in 2016. But they deserted her when she needed her colleagues to be united and stand solid. People have brought them to justice,” said the leader who didn’t wish to be named.

Mamata Banerjee’s ‘gaddar’ campaign worked for her party and against the defectors who joined BJP November-December onward, a senior BJP leader said on condition of anonymity.

BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijaywargiya told reporters in Kolkata, “I would not comment on defectors losing the elections. Some of them won too. We took those who had shown promise. But we will analyse the results.”

Disgruntlement in BJP

A second BJP leader noted the displeasure within the ranks over the induction of these turncoats.

“At least 95 per cent turncoats lost. This is why we resisted this decision of taking turncoats. The party looked like a Trinamool B team,” he said. “Many of BJP’s old guards did not get tickets while the defectors were accommodated. Party did not hear its cadres. It was bound to happen.”

Significantly, Union Minister Amit Shah had promoted some of the defectors in a big way, which hasn’t gone down well within the party cadres.

Three senior TMC turncoats — Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari and Sovan Chatterjee — who are accused of being involved in the Saradha chit fund scam and Narada sting case, have been given important positions in the BJP.

While Roy was given the post of the BJP national vice-president a few months ago, Chatterjee, former minister and ex-mayor of Kolkata, was appointed as the party’s observer of Kolkata zone.

Adhikari, who joined the BJP in December, was promoted as one of the star campaigners of the party ahead of the crucial assembly elections.

“Amit Shah depended on all defectors and not on the party’s old hands. He always called the bunch of turncoats to Delhi for meetings and decided election strategy while we were ignored. These defectors created their own factions inside the party, which never happens in BJP. They ignored our state president Dilip Ghosh too,” said a top BJP leader on condition of anonymity.

(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)