Three MLAs from West Bengal, including Trinamool Congress-turned-BJP leader Mukul Roy's son Subhrangshu Roy, along with more than 50 councillors on Tuesday joined the BJP. The other two MLAs are Tushar Kanti Bhattacharya from Bishnupur (Trinamool) and Debendra Roy from Hemtabad. Roy represents Bijpur Assembly constituency. They were received at the BJP office by senior party leader Kailash Vijayavargiya amid slogan shouting.
A day after over 50 Trinamool Congress leaders joined the BJP, Mamata Banerjee's party on Wednesday issued a clarification saying only one suspended MLA joined the saffron party, while the others were from Congress and CPI. The TMC added that six councillors joined the BJP but they "were forced at gunpoint to do so."
The move came a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's warning to the West Bengal Chief Minister that her MLAs would abandon her after the results of the general elections, adding that 40 of them were already in touch with him.
PM Modi during an election campaign in Hooghly said that"When the lotus will bloom all over Bengal after May 23, Didi , you will see that your MLAs will also abandon you and run away. Forty of your MLAs are in touch with me even today," Modi had told an election rally in Hooghly district."
The Trinamool Congress had suspended Bijapur legislator Subhrangshu for six years for anti-party comments, following which he along TMC MLAs Shilbhadra Dutta and Sunil Singh left for Delhi on Monday.
Subhrangshu said after getting suspended that "Now, I will breathe freely. Many in the TMC feel suffocated." He also added that several others from the party will follow his footsteps.
