Kolkata:
Senior TMC MLA and former Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation Mayor Sabyasachi Dutta on Tuesday joined BJP in the presence of party national president Amit Shah. Dutta was handed over the party flag by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, at a seminar on NRC presided by Shah. “For me the country and its interests is much bigger than personal or a party’s interests. India has achieved new heights under the leadership of Prime minister Narendra Modi,” Dutta said.
Dutta, who was at loggerheads with the TMC leadership, resigned from his post as mayor of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation in July this year. The TMC is no longer a party of the masses, it has become a family enterprise. The people have already rejected TMC,” Dutta told PTI over phone earlier.
Dutta, TMC MLA from Rajarhat-New Town who was seen with BJP leader Mukul Roy over the past few months, had resigned from the post of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation mayor in July this year.
Since the 2019 Lok Sabha poll results, seven TMC MLA and two Congress and CPI(M) MLAs have joined the saffron camp. Reacting to the development, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said the party is not at all bothered about Dutta’s proposed switchover to the saffron party.
“We (TMC) have no relation with Dutta for the last several months. It hardly bothers us,” he said.
Dutta was in the eye of a political storm after he participated in an agitation against West Bengal’s power department and slammed the TMC government for not fulfilling the employees’ demands for increasing their salaries.
The party leadership is also annoyed with Dutta over his meetings with senior BJP leader Mukul Roy. Dutta had, however, said that Roy visited him as an elder brother.
