Two Lok Sabha MPs of the Trinamool Congress were expelled from the party on Wednesday for inching closer to the Bharatiya Janata Party. One of them has already joined the saffron party while the other is yet to take a call.
Soumitra Khan was the president of the youth organisation of the Trinamool Congress. He is an MP from Bishnupur in western part of the state where BJP has made massive gains since last year.
Khan on Wednesday joined the BJP in Delhi in the presence of Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and BJP's West Bengal election-in-charge Mukul Roy.
Roy, a Rajya Sabha MP, said it's the beginning of the end of Mamata Banerjee. Roy himself was a former TMC leader who had quit to join the saffron party.
"I can say many have lined up to join us. In fact they are in touch with us and waiting for an appropriate moment to take the dive," said Roy.
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Another MP, Anupam Hazra, who won in 2014 from Bolpur, was also expelled from the TMC along with Khan. Hazra, a lecturer in Viswa Bharati University, was also found to be hobnobbing with senior BJP leaders, said TMC sources. Hazra had taken to social media many a time in the past to take on the ruling party, despite warnings from the chief minister and other party elders.
Khan is expected to be the candidate of the BJP from Bishnupur in the general elections which is round the corner. If Hazra joins, he would be candidate from Bolpur.
Roy is said to be the mastermind of the entire poaching. Roy had said that he was in touch with many ruling party leaders in the state, who had expressed their desire to join the saffron party.
Roy also claimed that Mamata Banerjee, herself, is in touch with many BJP leaders and would like to rejoin the National Democratic Alliance.
After Khan joined the BJP on Wednesday, Mamata swung into action and asked her close associates to keep a strict vigil on the leaders in suspicion.
Khan said a nephew of the chief minister was the reason for him to quit the TMC. Interestingly, Roy also quit the party because of the rise of the stature of Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee's nephew. Abhishek, known as very "aggressive and adamant", controls the entire party, said Khan.
"Corruption is at its peak in Bengal and Mamata Banerjee is watching everything like Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharat," said Roy adding, "Days will come when her empire will collapse like a pack of card."
Partha Chatterjee, secretary general of the TMC, said the ouster of the two leaders would not have any effect on the party.
"Let them win a single booth. Without Mamata Banerjee, none could survive," Chatterjee said.