KOLKATA: After tendering his resignation on Tuesday, Calcutta High Court justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay announced that he would join the BJP on March 7, adding that he was ready to contest against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Slamming the TMC, Gangopadhyay said erosion has already started developing within Bengal’s ruling party and expressed his doubt whether it would at all exist before the 2026 Assembly elections in West Bengal.
“I have decided to join the BJP as it is a national party which is fighting against TMC’s corruption. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a hardworking person and tirelessly working for the development of our country,” said Gangopadhyay.
Asked why he did not opt for the CPI(M) or the Congress as a political platform to join, Gangopadhyay said, “I believe in religion and God which the CPI(M) does not. Congress is a party which has been the zamindari of a family for years.”
Throwing a challenge to Trinamool Congress’s second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee, who criticised Gangopadhyay on several occasions for his verdicts, the former high court justice said, “If the party asks me to contest against him, will I flee? Never. He has a troop of hoodlums in his constituency Diamond Harbour. I will show how to face his henchmen. I will defeat him with a margin of lakhs of votes."
Gangopadhyay said the Narada sting operation in 2016, in which many having resemblance with senior TMC leaders were seen taking bribes, was a conspiracy hatched by a prominent TMC leader. “The company behind the sting operation was owned by the TMC leader’s relative. The operation was carried out to malign senior TMC officers. Many of the victims of the conspiracy still call the Taalpatar Shepai (thin foot-soldier) TMC leader as a Senapati (commander) of the party. I don’t know which war he has won,” he said.
Hitting back at Gangopadhyay, Abhishek, also the chief minister’s nephew, said, “The former justice said that he approached the BJP and the BJP approached me. If we read between the lines, it reflects his political allegiance when he was delivering his verdicts.”
Gangopadhyay tendered his resignation to the President of India, the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.
On Sunday, the former judge, who became popular among those who knocked the door of the judiciary seeking justice, described the TMC’s tenure in Bengal as an “empire of thieves” before announcing that he will quit his chair and step into a bigger sphere to serve the poor. He also congratulated Bengal’s ruling party for his decision.
“For passing several judgements, many in the ruling party made insulting comments against me. They even asked me to quit my chair and face them in the field of politics. I have finally made up my mind. I congratulate the ruling party for bringing me here. In history books, we have read about the Maurya Samrajya. Right now, we are witnessing Chaurya Samrajya (empire of thieves) in Bengal,” he had said.