In North Bengal, BJP Loses Dist Chief to TMC; Mukul Roy Predicts 'Start Of End' for Saffron Party

BJP district president Ganga Prasad from Alipurduar on Monday joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) along with other district leaders. Prasad took the TMC flag from Mukul Roy today, marking his entry into the party fold. It can be considered a significant loss for the BJP, which has five MLAs in Alipurduar.

This comes close on heels of former BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and his son Subhrangshu’s return to TMC on June 11. Targeting his former party, Roy on Monday said, “This is the forecast, remember? BJP started from North Bengal, this is just the start of end.”

‘Start of the end’ is the TMC moto as BJP still attempts to claim dominance and influence in North Bengal. In the 2021 state assembly elections, BJP won 30 out of 54 seats in North Bengal and TMC bagged 23 seats while 1 seats went to GJM.

In Murshidabad, TMC won 18 out of 22 seats (2 seats voting has not taken place) while in Maldah it bagged 8 out of the 12 seats. In 2019, BJP won 8 seats in North Bengal and this is the point from where BJP started to show that they are in a position to grab Bengal.

Interestingly, the TMC, despite a thumping majority of more than 200 seats, is now trying to target the BJP areas. That is the political forecast, which Mukul Roy has hinted at, says a party insider. Party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had hinted in his first press conference that BJP MLAs are also keeping touch.

Ganga Prasad, who has joined TMC today, said he was disgruntled from the time of the elections as BJP does not give its old members enough importance.

Responding to doubts on BJP’s hold on Bengal, party leader Sayantan Basu said Mukul Roy has not stayed for long in BJP so he does not know what BJP can do.

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