Another ‘Ghar Wapsi’ in Bengal? Ex-TMC Leader Prabir Ghosal Says He’s ‘Feeling Sad, Let Down’ by BJP

Several former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs, including Dipendu Biswas and Sonali Guha, have in the recent past expressed ‘regret’ over their decision to join the BJP and directly or indirectly sent feelers to the Trinamool Congress expressing their desire to return to the party’s fold. The latest to join the list is Prabir Ghosal, former MLA of Uttarpara in Hooghly.

Ghosal expressed his “unhappiness” with the BJP on Saturday, saying, “Recently, my mother passed away. MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay and MLA Kanchan Mullick called me. [Chief Minister] Mamata Banerjee too sent a condolence message. Only local BJP leaders shared their condolences. I am feeling a bit sad and let down.”

In a Facebook post, Subhrangshu Roy, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice-president Mukul Roy, also expressed gratitude on Saturday for Mamata Banerjee for reaching out to his family in the “hour of need” and got the rumour mills buzzing with the possibility of a political realignment in the state.

“West Bengal does not accept divisive politics. I have understood that…Anything is possible in politics,” Roy said on Saturday. His mother, Krishna Roy, is on life support at a private hospital in Kolkata. His father, Mukul Roy, too had contracted Covid-19 and was now recovering. His statement along with TMC supremo’s nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee’s visit to the hospital has raised eyebrows both in the BJP and in the TMC fuelling talks of senior Roy’s homecoming.

The TMC leaders, however, have downplayed Abhishek Banerjee’s visit to a private hospital to see the BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy’s wife as a courtesy call. “Inducting those who had left the party at a crucial hour and joined the brigade of falsehood led by Modi and Shah is not slated to figure tomorrow’s organisational meeting,” they said.

There are other turncoats that are now doing a rethink a month after the TMC desecrated the BJP in the hotly-contested state assembly polls.

The Trinamool Congress leadership is yet to take a call on Ghar Wapsi (return home) by former TMC leaders who had joined the BJP ahead of the recently concluded assembly elections which the Mamata Banerjee-led party swept. Top TMC sources said Banerjee, who is the party supremo, will take a final call on allowing those TMC men and women who had crossed over to the saffron party, who wish to rejoin re-entry into the party.

Political analysts, however, predicted that the party would allow return of former TMC leaders who went over to BJP very selectively, to drive home the message to its cadre ahead of general elections in 2024, that rebellions would not be tolerated. “Er shirsho sidhanta, Netri nijei nite paren (only the Leader (Banerjee) can take a final decision on this issue),” said a senior TMC leader, on conditions of anonymity. “We are now preoccupied with fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and organising Cyclone Yaas relief,” a TMC leader said.

The chief minister during her election campaign had branded other turncoat TMC members as Mir Jafars after the infamous Bengal general who betrayed Siraj ud Dowlah in the battle of Plassey against Lord Robert Clive’s army.

The Trinamool Congress romped home in Bengal, pocketing 213 of the 292 assembly seats that went to polls and secured a third straight term in office. The Mamata Banerjee-led party’s main challenger, the BJP, bagged 77 seats, against a claim that they would win more than 200 seats.

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