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Updated September 21st, 2021 at 08:30 IST

Sukanta Majumdar vows to protect WB from Mamata's 'Talibani rule', downplays defections

In his 1st reaction after being appointed as the West Bengal BJP chief, Sukanta Majumdar vowed to protect the state from Mamata Banerjee's "Talibani rule".

Reported by: Akhil Oka
Sukanta Majumdar, Mamata
Image: Facebook/PTI | Image:self
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In his first reaction after being appointed as the new president of BJP's West Bengal unit, Sukanta Majumdar vowed to protect the state from Mamata Banerjee's "Talibani rule". Majumdar who was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 from Balurghat after defeating TMC's Arpita Ghosh by a margin of 33,293 votes replaced Dilip Ghosh who was in charge since December 2015. Expressing gratitude towards the party's central leadership, the Balurghat MP stated that he would take suggestions from Ghosh and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. 

Speaking to ANI, he also downplayed the spate of defections that has rocked the saffron party in recent times. He asserted, "Those who believe in the ideology of the party know that our real strength lies in booth workers. Tomorrow, if I also leave, it won't affect the party as the workers would still fight". 

BJP loses momentum after election results

Under the leadership of Dilip Ghosh, BJP won three seats in the West Bengal Assembly for the first time in 2016. Ghosh himself became an MLA after winning the Kharagpur Sadar seat by a margin of 5,309 votes. He also successfully contested the Medinipur seat in the 2019 General Election with his party winning 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. However, TMC sprung a surprise by decisively winning the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election by bagging 213 seats whereas BJP could win in only 77 constituencies.

Thereafter, speculation about Mukul Roy's political future started doing the rounds after Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari pipped him to the Leader of the Opposition's post. An accused in the Narada sting operation case, Mukul Roy had resigned from TMC in September 2017 and joined BJP two months later. While the then BJP national vice-president won the Krishnanagar Uttar seat in Nadia district, his son Subhrangshu who joined the party in May 2019 was defeated from the Bijpur seat from where he was the incumbent MLA.

On June 11, Roy and his son rejoined TMC in the presence of CM Mamata Banerjee and her nephew. After a brief lull, Tanmoy Ghosh who won in Bishnupur on a BJP ticket switched allegiance to TMC on August 30. Biswajit Das and Soumen Roy, the sitting BJP legislators from Bagda and Kaliaganj respectively followed suit. As Jagannath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik chose to retain their Lok Sabha seats despite winning the Assembly polls, BJP's strength has now reduced to 71 seats. Furthermore, rumour mills are abuzz about BJP MLA Krishna Kalyani's possible defection to the Mamata Banerjee-led party. 

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Published September 21st, 2021 at 08:30 IST

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