Former BJP union minister John Barla blames West Bengal party leadership after meeting TMC leaders, sparks rumours about defection

Speculation is rife that John Barla, the former BJP MP from Alipurduars and union minister of state for minority affairs, may switch to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after he met leaders from the ruling party at his residence on Monday. The development comes ahead of the November 13 by-elections in the state.

Barla, a controversial politician who had repeatedly advocated for the separation of North Bengal from West Bengal to form a new state, was not renominated by the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Instead, the party selected Manoj Tigga for the Alipurduars seat, which he won. 

It’s believed that the party sidelined Barla for his controversial remarks and underperformance, leading to several months of political inactivity. He has been notably absent from the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign for the Madarihat bypoll, an assembly segment within Alipurduars where the election became necessary following former MLA Tigga’s election to Parliament. 

However, Barla’s recent meeting with TMC’s district secretary Deepen Pramanik and district spokesperson Dulal Debnath has once again brought him into the spotlight, sparking speculation that he may be considering defection to the TMC. 

A key tribal leader in North Bengal, the 49-year-old Barla has switched his allegiance from one party to another throughout his political career. Before 2011, he used to support the left front and after the TMC came to power, he also worked with the Mamata Banerjee-led party. 

Barla is also thought to maintain a close relationship with Gorkha leaders, including Bimal Gurung and separatists who advocate for the creation of a separate state of Gorkhaland from West Bengal. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he officially joined the BJP and played a key role in the saffron party’s rapid rise in North Bengal. He won from the Alipurduars with a massive margin of more than 2.43 lakh votes. 

As a result, his shift to the TMC before the election in Madarihat, the only constituency among the six headed for the bypolls which was won by the BJP in 2021, could be a major success for the ruling party in West Bengal. 

During his interaction with the media following the meeting, Barla did not hold back his dissatisfaction towards the BJP’s West Bengal leadership. “The leadership in Kolkata doesn’t even listen to us. Leaders from Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri (districts in North Bengal)are not included in any committees. This is why the BJP is performing poorly in West Bengal.” 

Barla also criticised Tigga, the Alipurduars MP, accusing him of acting like a “one-man army” in the region. The former union minister claimed that Tigga has failed to keep the party united, leading to his “tribal and Gorkha brothers” running as independent candidates against the BJP for the upcoming Madarihat bypoll.