KOLKATA: Murshidabad Congress MLA Bayron Biswas joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday, two months after he won in a by-election, bringing back the grand old party’s tally in the West Bengal assembly again to zero.
Biswas, who was supported by the Left Front in the by-poll in March this year, joined the ruling party in the presence of Abhishek Banerjee, TMC’s national general secretary and chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew.
“Bayron joined the TMC as he felt the TMC is the only political force which can fight the BJP in Bengal. I hope he will continue his fight against the BJP,” said Abhishek.
Biswas said there was a surprising element behind his defection to the TMC.
“The Congress has no contribution behind my victory in the Sagardighi by-election. I won the election because of my personal image among the electorates. I belong to a family which believes in the TMC’s ideology and I found the ruling party is the perfect platform to fight against the BJP,” he said after shifting his political allegiance.
Biawas’s victory in the by-election was a massive jolt to the TMC as the Sagardighi Assembly constituency is dominated by minority voters, considered the ruling party’s vote bank across the state, who form nearly 60 per cent of the total electorates.
Biswas won the by-election with a margin of 22,000 votes from the Sagardighi seat, which was bagged by the TMC in the 2021 Assembly election.
Annoyed with the Sagardighi by-election result, chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had expressed her discontent saying the Congress, BJP and CPI(M) joined hands to defeat its candidate Debasish Banerjee.
“We don’t need anyone’s support. We will fight against the BJP alone even at national level,” she had reacted after the defeat of TMC’s candidate.
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury described the defection as a humiliation of people’s verdict.
“The electorates of Sagardighi elected Bayron. But the TMC mowed down the verdict under its feet,” he said.
