Ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections 2024, former Trinamool Congress veteran Tapas Roy joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday. He joined the saffron party in the presence of West Bengal LoP Suvendu Adhikari and West Bengal BJP chief Sukant Majumdar at the BJP party office in Kolkata.
Roy submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday expressing his displeasure over TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee for “deserting him during difficult circumstances”. The former TMC leader was serving as the State Development and Planning Minister in the Bengal government.
#WATCH | West Bengal: Former TMC leader Tapas Roy joined BJP today in the presence of West Bengal LoP and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and West Bengal BJP chief Sukant Majumdar at the BJP party office in Kolkata. pic.twitter.com/p0Xo9or1QW— ANI (@ANI) March 6, 2024
He had earlier expressed displeasure over the function of the Mamata Banerjee-led party and quit as an MLA. “I have submitted my resignation as an MLA to the assembly speaker. I am now a free bird,” Roy said.
He also hit out at the TMC top brass for not supporting him during the Enforcement Directorate raid at his residence and for the way the Sandeshkhali issue was handled.
“I am really disappointed with the way the party is functioning. I am fed up with so many allegations of corruption levelled against the party and the government. Secondly, I do not support the way the Sandeshkhali issue was handled,” Roy told reporters.
Speculations have been rife about Roy joining BJP ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
First elected as an MLA on the Congress ticket in 1996 from Vidyasagar Assembly seat, Tapas Roy is a veteran Trinamool Congress leader.
He won the 2001 Assembly elections on a TMC ticket from Bara Bazar. Later in 2011, he moved to the Baranagar Assembly constituency in North 24 Paragnas district and has been a TMC legislator from the seat since then.
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