Kolkata: BJP state secretary and the former mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Sabyasachi Dutta, who had quit the TMC to join the saffron camp two years ago, returned to the Mamata Banerjee-led party on Thursday.
He claimed that the saffron party runs a “Taliban-style government” wherever it is in power.
Dutta was welcomed into the fold by TMC secretary-general and cabinet minister Partha Chatterjee at his chamber in the Assembly, in the presence of other senior leaders.
“We inducted Dutta in the party, as per his request, on the very day our leader Mamata Banerjee took oath as an MLA. She has approved Dutta’s induction into the party,” Chatterjee said.
The new inductee, on his part, asserted that he would humbly take up any role offered to him by the TMC.
“The BJP is running a Taliban-style government wherever it is in power. This is absolutely condemnable,” he stated, shortly after the switch over.
He further said that some misunderstanding had prompted his exit from the TMC, but that has now been resolved.
“From 2011 to 2021, I was an MLA. I held the post of BMC mayor for several terms. There was some misunderstanding within the party. But that has been cleared. My new journey with the TMC begins from today,” the former legislator added.
Dutta lost Bidhannagar seat to TMC’s Sujit Bose in the April-May Assembly elections.
Reacting to the switchover, state BJP vice president Ritesh Tiwari said it only goes on to show Dutta’s “double standards and his lack of political credibility”.
The saffron camp has been facing an exodus since its defeat in the Assembly polls.
The BJP won 77 of the 292 seats that went to the polls. The TMC won 213 seats, while the ISF and the GJM bagged one seat each in the state elections.
BJP’s Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar later resigned as MLAs to retain their Lok Sabha seats, bringing down the saffron camp’s official tally in the Assembly to 75.
Four saffron camp MLAs, including the party’s national vice president Mukul Roy, has crossed over to the TMC since the declaration of the assembly poll results on May 2.
None of them, however, quit the membership of the assembly and continue to be BJP MLAs.
Former Union minister Babul Supriyo also joined the TMC last month.