Bengal bucks the trend, it’s BJP that is seeing leaders leave in the state

At a time when the BJP is seeing the influx of bigwigs like former CMs, MLAs and MPs from other parties into its fold in other states, the party is seeing leaders deserting it in West Bengal.

Over the last one week, the BJP has lost an MP and an MLA to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) while Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs John Barla, who has not yet officially quit the party, has publicly expressed his displeasure at being overlooked for the Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat.

The defections of BJP leaders to the TMC are also a boost to the ruling party, especially after it was cornered recently over the Sandeshkhali issue. Many of these leaders left around the time of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state, where he inaugurated a slew of development projects and also interacted with the members of the BJP Mahila Morcha as well as the victims of Sandeshkhali.

The latest leader to announce his dissociation from the BJP was Jhargram MP Kunar Hembram, who on Saturday said he was stepping away from politics to focus on social work. However, sources said the engineer-turned-politician took the decision after learning that he was unlikely to be renominated from the tribal-dominated seat in Jangalmahal area, a former Maoist hotbed.

Hembram, a first-time MP, won the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by around 10,000 votes, defeating nearest rival Birabha Saren of the TMC. In February 2021, he was gheraoed in his constituency by women, who demanded piped water connection, a promise made by the BJP in the run-up to the polls.

Hembram’s victory was seen as the BJP’s breach of an area which the TMC had transformed into its bastion since 2012, riding mostly on the welfare measures of the Mamata government for Maoists and victims of violence