Subhendu Adhikary to join BJP in Midnapore today, 10 more MLAs, one MP, one former MP will also join

Former minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, Subhendu Adhikary, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a public meeting in West Midnapore in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah today. Shah is already in the state and arrived in Kolkata late on Friday night. He will travel to West Midnapore in the morning and attend the public meeting at around 2 pm.

Sources said that not just Subhendu Adhikary, but 10 more lawmakers will join the BJP today. These MLAs are from Trinamool Congress and the Left parties. Trinamool Congress MP Sunil Mondal is also expected to join the BJP, apart from a former MP from north Bengal. Of the 10 MLAs that will join the BJP are Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA Tapasi Mondal (Haldia), Trinamool Congress MLA Banashree Maiti (Contai North) and Communist Party of India MLA Ashok Dinda (Tamluk).

Adhikary is expected to reach Midnapore during the day where he will be handed over the BJP flag by Shah. There, Adhikary is also expected to speak to the public briefly in presence of Amit Shah.

Today’s event will be significant in West Bengal politics in the run up to the Assembly elections of 2021. The BJP, that won 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in 2019, is looking to wrest power from the ruling Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee. Trinamool Congress leaders however, say that the party is confident of continuing in power for the third time, and those who are leaving the party will help benefit the Trinamool Congress in the coming polls.