The ruling Trinamool Congress on Thursday suffered a jolt as Manjul Krishna Thakur, a Bengal Minister representing the formidable Matua community, joined the BJP along with his son Subrato Thakur, also a local Trinamool leader.
Amid claims by State BJP president Rahul Sinha that many more Trinamool leaders would join the saffron outfit in the coming months, the ruling outfit expelled Thakur from the party “for anti-party activities” but not before he had already told the media that he was leaving Mamata Banerjee for her “arrogance” and “immoral activities.”
The Thakurs are religious figureheads of the 12.5 lakh Matua population that migrated from Bangladesh and were currently spread across Nadia and parts of North 24 Parganas districts bordering Bangladesh and nurturing deep-rooted grudge against successive governments for doing nothing to rehabilitate them.
"Good people cannot continue in the Trinamool Congress which is ridden with factionalism and is involved in all kinds of corrupt practices" Manjul Thakur , the State Refugee Rehabilitation Minister, said proffering apology for "why I failed to do sufficient work for the Matuas."
When asked as to whether he had talks with the Chief Minister before quitting or whether she tried to persuade him into changing his decision he said "she did not tell me anything because she is arrogant."
Banerjee was also "a person who was involved in immoral acts," Thakur said. His elder brother Kapil Krishna Thakur a sitting MP died a few months ago. Raising questions on the nature of his elder brother's death Manjul Thakur demanded CBI inquiry saying "I suspect foul play as it was an unnatural death."
The Trinamool Congress had nominated Mamata Thakur the late MP's wife as the party candidate from Bangaon while the BJP was yet to decide on a candidate though the scales were heavily tilted in favour of Subroto Thakur, insiders said.
Thakur was not the last to migrate to the BJP sources said and the process had only begun Sinha said insisting at least 29 more leaders were standing in the sidelines to join the party underscoring a similar statement by his party's central observer Siddharth Nath Singh who said a few days ago that "he do not deny that there are many Trinamool men who are willing to join us as they are utterly disgruntled with the brand of Paribartan brought by the Trinamool Congress." He however said the BJP would decide as to whom to take in and whom not to.