TMC leaders discreetly knocking on BJP's doors

As the political jostling increases in West Bengal, some Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders are discreetly knocking on the doors of the BJP.

Some TMC leaders, including ministers, have also made a quiet trip to Lucknow to meet the BJP leaders. A sense of unease appears to have set in, in the TMC due to the BJP aggressively pushing its expansion plan, with party chief Amit Shah choosing Naxalbari to kick off his three-day stay in the state.

BJP sources said no decision has been taken on allowing TMC leaders, who are keen on joining the party. The party top brass is conscious, said sources, of not wanting to be seen as engineering a revolt in the TMC, but the internal strife in that party showing up in public would suit the BJP’s gameplan for now.

It was similar to what was happening in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) — the ruling party of Odisha, pointed out BJP sources. Senior BJD leader Baijayant Jay Panda had recently indirectly attacked his own Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for failing to curb corruption and nepotism within the party and government.

Before that, Panda’s colleague in Lok Sabha Tathagata Satpathy had tweeted that the BJP was orchestrating a feud within the BJD.

BJP general secretary in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya had recently claimed “nationalist” leaders from the Congress and Left will join his party as they are feeling stifled by chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s “appeasement politics”.