Lone West Bengal Congress MLA Bayron Biswas joins TMC

Biswas had won the Sagardighi seat on a Congress ticket in a bypoll held earlier this year.

The Congress in West Bengal received a big jolt on Monday when its lone MLA Bayron Biswas in the state Legislative Assembly jumped ships to the Trinamool Congress.

Backed by the Left, Biswas had defeated the Trinamool candidate Debashish Banerjee with a margin of nearly 23,000 votes, and a vote share of around 47%, in a bypoll from Sagardighi Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district.

The seat was with the Trinamool since 2011 when it came to power in the state defeating the Left-steered government. The bypoll had been necessitated due to the death of the the-then sitting Trinamool MLA.

“Keeping Trinamool Congress and chairperson Mamata Banerjee’s developmental politics in mind, Bayron Biswas has joined us and strengthened our hands in our fight against the BJP,” Trinamool’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said. The Trinamool leader, on a two-month-long public outreach programme, welcomed Biswas at Ghatal in Paschim Medinipur district in south Bengal.

Also Read | Centre not discriminating against Bengal: State BJP chief

Banerjee alleged that the Congress leaders (in the state) joined hands with the CPM and ISF (Left ally in the state) to “strengthen” the BJP. He alleged that while TMC chief Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly said that she has no issues supporting the Congress to defeat the BJP, yet the state Congress chief – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury – continues to speak about his fight with the TMC. On the anti-defection law, Banerjee said that he was not sure if it was applicable in this case, as Congress had only one seat in the Assembly.

Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the people wanted Biswas to be the MLA, representing the Congress Party. But, the Trinamool leadership intended to move ahead ignoring people’s wishes. The statements following the election result prove that Trinamool was not ready to accept the defeat. “We have proved that Trinamool could be defeated,... and Mamata Banerjee is not an invincible political personality… The game you are playing today will affect you the most, in the days to come,” he said.

Sukanta Majumdar, BJP state president, responding to a query on the development, said that the Trinamool and the chief minister try to raise, and inflate Left-Congress (as political opponents), at intervals, but attempts fall flat.