Amit Shah in Kolkata today, rebel Trinamool MLA Sabyasachi Dutta to join BJP
Kolkata: In presence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah, who will be here on Tuesday, rebel Trinamool Congress MLA and former Bidhannagar Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta is likely to join the saffron outfit.
Dutta, who has been vocal against the top Trinamool leadership for several months now, earlier resigned as the Mayor after his own party had brought an impeachment motion against him.
Speaking to media, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Monday said, "Lot of people are coming to the BJP and many will come. I was not in Kolkata so I will try to know whether the news is true or not. Dutta was about to join our party."
However, the Trinamool, which had lost its strongman Arjun Singh before the 2019 General Elections, posed unperturbed by such a development. West Bengal Minister and Trinamool general secretary Partha Chatterjee said, "These people used to go to the BJP and come back. They are only getting carried away."
Dutta remained mum over his possible joining in the BJP.
After the Lok Sabha polls, which has witnessed a meteoric rise of the BJP in the state, several Trinamool councillors of local bodies had switched sides to the saffron camp but later majority of them had also returned to the ruling party of West Bengal.
In the General Elections, the Trinamool's tally of seats came down from 34 to 22 while the BJP made a huge inroad in the eastern state by bagging 18 of 42 seats.
Shah is scheduled to land at the Dum Dum Airport at 1 pm. He will address the party members and workers over National Register of Citizens (NRC) at the Netaji Indoor Stadium at a time West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is accusing the BJP of creating panic through the NRC causing deaths of several people.
Several media reports claimed that about a dozen people allegedly in West Bengal have either committed suicide or died of shock after hearing the drive to throw out illegal immigrants will be implemented also in their state days after the NRC in Assam excluded 19 lakh people.
Though the Assam BJP has rejected the NRC, which has excluded majority of Hindus, Shah reiterated time and again that the drive to throw out illegal immigrants will be implemented in all states.
(Image Credit: IBNS File)
