Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday created a flutter when he warned West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that 40 MLAs of her Trinamool Congress were “in contact with him today”.
Modi was speaking at a BJP rally in Serampore. Referring to Banerjee as 'didi', Modi claimed “On May 23, when the (Lok Sabha election) results will come, lotus will bloom everywhere and your MLAs will leave you. Even today, didi, 40 of your MLAs are in contact with me.” Modi accused Banerjee of betraying trust of voters and warned it was difficult for her to “escape”.
Interestingly, Modi is not the first BJP leader to claim Trinamool Congress legislators would leave the party. In January, Mukul Roy, a Banerjee lieutenant who joined the BJP, claimed many members of the Trinamool would join the BJP. He claimed, “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”.
In late March, Arjun Singh, a Trinamool leader who joined the BJP, claimed “About 100 legislators from the ruling party are set to join the BJP. They are in touch with the BJP leaders on a regular basis. Some will join before the elections, the rest after.”
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The Trinamool Congress, which is facing an aggressive challenge from the BJP, had begun reaching out to disgruntled leaders to prevent them from crossing over.
The Trinamool Congress had won 211 seats in the 2016 assembly polls, so even if 40 MLAs were to leave the party, Banerjee's government could theoretically continue. However, the utterances from Modi are significant as they come in the middle of the Lok Sabha poll campaign. Intriguingly, the official BJP Twitter handle also reported Modi's claims of TMC MLAs being in touch with him.