GUWAHATI: The BJP suffered a jolt on Sunday as its national executive member from West Bengal Rajib Banerjee and Tripura MLA Ashis Das defected to the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The duo joined the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led party at a rally, addressed among others by party leader Abhishek Banerjee, in Tripura capital Agartala.
Banerjee, a former minister in Mamata’s cabinet, had deserted the TMC in January ahead of Assembly elections in West Bengal to wear saffron.
He on Sunday said he had made a mistake by joining the BJP and apologised for it. The BJP gave only false promises to the people to derive political mileage, he said.
“I feel ashamed and guilty that I had joined the BJP,” Banerjee said.
Das, whose defection was on expected lines, heaped praise on Mamata but slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that the people in Tripura were suffering under the BJP governments, at the centre as well as the state.
Early this month, he had shaved off his head and offered a puja at the famous Kalighat temple in Kolkata to atone for the “blunder” he made by joining the BJP.
The Surma MLA had then said the “evil” BJP was “swallowing” the entire country.
“I feel I had committed a crime by becoming a part of the BJP. It was a blunder that I made. I offered a puja at Kalighat temple and tonsured my head to make amends,” he had stated.