After mass defection to BJP, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool claims that only 6 among those who jumped ship were from its ranks, says they were 'forced at gunpoint to do so'

A day after three West Bengal MLAs and around 50 councillors amongst defected Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool, the party has claimed that only six of those who jumped ship were from their party. It also alleged that they were forced to do so at gunpoint. 

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday morning, the official handle of the Mamata Banerjee-led party claimed that one among the defectors was a suspended Trinamool MLA while all others were from Congress and CPI(M). The party called it a 'fact-check' a day after one of the Trinamool leader had called them 'rats who abandon a ship sensing danger'.

Here's the tweet:

Three West Bengal MLAs, including BJP leader Mukul Roy's son Subhrangshu Roy, and over 50 municipal councillors, most of them from the Trinamool Congress, joined the BJP on Tuesday. TMC's Tusharkanti Bhattacharya and CPI(M)'s Debendra Nath Roy were other MLAs from the state who joined the saffron party, BJP leader Anil Baluni had informed on Tuesday. Subhrangshu Roy was suspended by the TMC for his "anti-party" activities after the Lok Sabha election results were announced.

West Bengal Chief Minister's suffered a big setback in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP managing to win a massive 18 seats compared to just 2 in 2014, while the Trinamool's own tally fell from 34 seats to 22. Additionally, as per the Election Commission, the BJP almost equalled the Trinamool's vote-share in the state after a high-voltage and combative campaign, winning 40.3% votes in comparison to Trinamool's 43.3%.

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During the campaign in the state in which a war-of-words of some sort or the other had broken out almost each day, PM Modi had on April 29 sensationally said during a poll rally in Serampore that around 40 Trinamool MLAs were in touch with the BJP and they were waiting for the election results to make their next move. 

Following the election results, Mamata Banerjee had said that she had offered to resign as the Chief Minister of the state and function only as the chief of the Trinamool. However, the party had rejected her resignation, she had added. The BJP, on the other hand, had said that she was simply attempting to gain sympathy.