Two days after leaving the BJP, Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh on Tuesday said that there were more leaders waiting to switch sides. Singh on Monday had staged a gharwapsi rejoining the Trinamool Congress three hours after he left the party.
“I would not take the names immediately but there are people who are eager to stage a homecoming or for that matter join the TMC,” Singh said when asked to comment about his “excellent” chemistry with Bishnupur BJP MP Saumitra Khan.
Soon after joining the TMC the Barrackpore MP has been entrusted with the supervision of organizational works of Bongaon area bordering Bangladesh. Bongaon has a sizeable number of BJP MLAs who enjoy good chemistry with Singh.
“Saumitra Khan is like my younger brother and has his own political discretion ... but his younger brother is in touch with me,” Singh said adding many leaders were in contact with him and things would unfold with time.
When contacted Khan too would not refute reports of his changing the party at once even as he said that he would consider returning to theTMC should its general secretary and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Abhishek Banerjee nephew left that party.
“I will rejoin the TMC but for that to happen Abhishek Banerjee who is as cunning as a jackal must leave that party,” Khan who too had left the TMC to join the saffron outfit several years ago said.
Another saffron leader and former MP Anupam Hazra too sounded rebellious even as he attacked his own party men for criticizing those who were leaving the party but not doing any introspection. “It is important to do some self-introspection instead of always attacking the leaders who are leaving the party like Arjun Singh … there must have been some lapses which is why these people are leaving,” he said in an apparent reference to recent exodus in the saffron party.
When contacted about the recent spate of exodus, BJP MP Locket Chatterjee said that the BJP would be strengthened if the traitors left the party. “Those who want to leave should do so immediately … the doors are open for them to go … the BJP will be stronger if they leave,” she said.
Meanwhile even as the senior State BJP leaders went into a huddle apparently to take stock of the situation at least 20 district level leaders from Jalpaiguri in North Bengal on Tuesday left resigned posts expressing discontent against the way the party was functioning.
Similar rebellion was seen in BJP’s Nandigram block in East Midnapore, a stronghold of Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari. Local BJP leaders on Wednesday rebelled against the party’s new Mandal president saying the district leadership was acting arbitrarily by appointing inefficient leaders. “If he is not removed then the whole batch of block level leaders would resign their posts,” said the rebel functionaries.