Another Trinamool MLA joins BJP

In another blow for the Trinamool Congress, its MLA Monirul Islam on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, the third legislator to desert the ruling party in West Bengal after the reverses in the Lok Sabha polls.

Two TMC legislators and over 50 councillors had joined the BJP on Tuesday.

The BJP projected the decision of TMC's Muslim MLA to join the party as a vindication of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's slogan of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas' (together with all, development for all, trust of all).

Modi gave the slogan in his first address to MP's of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance after the Lok Sabha poll results were declared.

He had asked them to win over the trust of minorities with their work.

Several other TMC workers also joined the saffron party in New Delhi in the presence of BJP leaders Mukul Roy and Kailash Vijaywargiya.

'Doesn't matter if some opportunist MLAs join BJP'

The Trinamool Congress leadership, meanwhile, shrugged off party MLAs joining the BJP, saying it 'doesn't matter' if some 'opportunist' legislators switch loyalties.

The TMC also claimed that some among those who had joined the saffron party had been threatened to do so.

"It doesn't matter if one or two opportunist MLAs switchover to the BJP. Some are opportunist and some are being forced to join by using threat and intimidation," senior TMC leader Tapas Roy said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Mamata Banerjee-led party had claimed in a tweet that its MLAs and councillors were forced at gunpoint to join the BJP, which, in a stunning result, won 18 Lok Sabha seats in the state, only four less than the TMC's 22.

'One suspended MLA of Trinamool joined BJP yesterday. The others were from Congress and CPI(M). The number of councillors is 6. That too they were forced at gunpoint to do so,' the TMC said.