Three Former TMC MPs Join BJP, Immediately Fielded for Rajya Sabha Bypolls
Three former Rajya Sabha members of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday in Kolkata, hours after which the BJP announced them as candidates for the Rajya Sabha bypolls necessitated by their resignations.
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev, and Prakash Chik Baraik had resigned from the Rajya Sabha between June 8 and June 11, following the TMC's defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections held on May 4. The BJP won a landslide victory in those elections, ending the TMC's decade-long rule.
The three politicians joined the BJP at the party's office in Kolkata in the presence of state party president Samik Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya said, 'All our leaders, including (Chief Minister) Suvendu Adhikari and I, are happy with their inclusion in the party. It is a really happy day for us. Like Assam and Tripura, which are moving forward under the double-engine government, Bengal will also move ahead.'
After joining the BJP, Ray criticised the TMC government, saying that the protests following the 2024 R G Kar Medical College rape and murder case indicated that the TMC would not retain power. He claimed that under the TMC, Bengal was 'moving backwards' due to repeated opposition to the central government. 'By always speaking against the central government, we were moving outside the map of India. In trying to oppose the central government, talent left Bengal. Bengal became an old-age home,' he said.
Sushmita Dev accused her former party of corruption. 'I am very saddened. Since childhood, I have seen Didi (Mamata Banerjee) in a cotton sari, but I have seen in Bengal how much corruption can happen — it is unbelievable. I entered politics to serve the country. Corruption has been extreme in Trinamool at the lower levels,' she said. She also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, 'The kind of vision that Modi has, no other leader has in the country.'
Dev had met Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma in New Delhi shortly after her resignation. While she described it as a courtesy call, sources indicated that Sarma played a role in her decision to quit the TMC. Dev is the daughter of former Union minister Santosh Mohan Dev and began her career in the Congress party, winning the Silchar Lok Sabha seat in Assam in 2014. She rose to national prominence as president of the All India Mahila Congress before joining TMC in 2021 to spearhead its Northeast expansion. Within TMC, she served as national spokesperson and was later elected to the Rajya Sabha.
Sukhendu Shekhar Roy also started his political career with the Congress party before joining the TMC. He was vice-president of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association between 2009 and 2011. He became a Rajya Sabha member for the first time after Mamata Banerjee assumed office as Chief Minister in 2011 and served three consecutive terms. He was also the party's Chief Whip in the House. During the RG Kar case protests, he supported the protesters and joined a 'night march.'
Prakash Chik Baraik was seen as being close to TMC's second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee before his resignation. In 2018, he fought his first election in the Kumargram panchayat of Alipurduar district, after which he rose rapidly in the party. Within five years, in 2023, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha.
The resignations and defections have deepened the internal crisis within the TMC following its assembly election defeat. The bypolls for the three Rajya Sabha seats will be held in due course.
