BJP Alipurduar district chief Ganga Prasad Sharma joins TMC

Party has failed to fulfil the aspirations of people in north Bengal, he says

Alipurduar district BJP president Ganga Prasad Sharma joins the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on June 21, 2021. Photo: Twitter/@AITCofficial

Alipurduar district BJP president Ganga Prasad Sharma joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday.

Mr. Sharma, who has been the district president of the BJP since 2015, joined the ruling party along with seven leaders of the saffron party at the TMC headquarters here. He joined in the presence of Mukul Roy who had defected to the TMC from the BJP earlier this month.

The BJP performed well in Alipurduar winning all the five Assembly seats in the recent Assembly polls.

Mr. Roy said the BJP had won the highest number of seats from north Bengal in both the Assembly and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and such defections were the beginning of its end.

Mr. Sharma said the BJP leadership was taking decisions unilaterally without consulting the district unit. “I had decided to quit the BJP months ago but did not take a decision before the elections.” The north Bengal BJP leader said despite getting the support of the people of north Bengal the BJP has failed to fulfil their aspirations.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said Mr. Sharma had defected because he could not get the ticket to contest the Assembly polls.

In another development that can be of political significance, the BJP appointed Malati Rava, MLA from Tufanganj, as national vice-president. Ms. Rava has been a prominent BJP leader from north Bengal and was president of Cooch Behar district. Mr. Roy was national vice-president of the BJP before he returned to the TMC after three and half years with the saffron party.