Former Trinamool Congress leader and four-time MLA Sonali Guha, who quit the party to join the BJP before the West Bengal Assembly polls, wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, apologising for leaving the party and urging her to take her back.
“Just like a fish cannot stay out of the water, I will not be able to live without you. Didi, I seek your forgiveness and if you don't forgive me, I won’t be able to live. Please allow me to come back and spend the rest of my life in your affection,” Ms. Guha wrote in her letter.
Ms. Guha, former MLA from Satgachia, who had also served as Deputy Speaker in West Bengal Legislative Assembly, had left the TMC when she was denied ticket.
Ms. Guha describing herself as a “family member” of Ms, Banerjee, said she was hurt on being denied a ticket and not getting any call from the Chief Minister.
“I am writing this with a broken heart that I took the wrong decision of joining another party after being emotional… I could not get accustomed there,” she said.
Later in the day, Ms. Guha told journalists that she would visit the Chief Minister next week. She also said the BJP wanted her to speak ill of the Chief Minister which she could not and, therefore, she could not continue with the BJP.
Nearly 30 MLAs had defected from the TMC to the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls. Most of them who were given tickets by the BJP lost the Assembly elections. Ms. Guha was not offered a ticket by the BJP either.