The West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday said that it has issued legal notices to two of its MLAs, Tanmoy Ghosh and Biswajit Das, who defected to the ruling Trinamool Congress, reported The Hindu.
Ghosh had joined the Trinamool Congress on Monday, while Das switched to the Mamata Banerjee-led party a day after that. Another leader, Mukul Roy, had rejoined the Trinamool Congress on June 11.
Ahead of the Assembly elections in the state between March to April, a spate of Trinamool Congress leaders had defected to the BJP. Banerjee’s former close aide Suvendu Adhikari, who is currently the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, was the first one to switch sides.
Despite this, the Trinamool Congress won 213 of the 294 seats in the state Assembly elections. The BJP had managed to win only 77 constituencies.
After Das’ exit on Tuesday, the BJP’s strength in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly dropped to 72. However, none of the three leaders who quit the BJP have resigned as MLAs.
The BJP had sought Roy’s disqualification from the Assembly after he moved to the Trinamool Congress.
On Wednesday, Adhikari said that the BJP would use the anti-defection law like it did in the case of Roy, reported The Indian Express. “Even after winning 213 seats, the Trinamool needs more MLAs,” he said.
Adhikari said that more than 50 MLAs of different parties have joined the Trinamool Congress since it came to power in 2011. “The Opposition parties then [the Left and the Congress] did not seriously take up these defections,” he added. “From the BJP, we can assure that we will take it to its logical conclusion in a democratic manner.”
Adhikari said that he was not in touch with Das and Ghosh for the past few months.
The leader of Opposition also said that West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh has tasked him with enforcing the anti-defection law on the MLAs who have switched parties. “We will set a precedent to stop the trend of factionalism without resigning,” he added.
Ghosh said that defection was not a new phenomenon and it would not affect the saffron party in the state.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that Adhikari was trying to hide his inefficiency in handling party MLAs by claiming that he was not in touch with them.
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