The North remembers: Snubbed by Mamata, senior TMC leader from North Bengal joins BJP, fires salvo at Didi

Biplab Mitra, who was once known to be one of the best political foremen for the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) from the South Dinajpur district in West Bengal, joined the BJP in Delhi on Monday, tossing out a series of complaints directed at his former party supremo, Mamata Banerjee.

According to the senior TMC leader, he had requested the party leadership to not field Balurghat MP Arpita Ghosh for the second time in the same seat during the recently conducted Lok Sabha polls. "As an MP, Ghosh did not really work to build any contact with the locals," said Mitra, "She did not even visit the region during the 2017 floods. We had to do the groundwork from scratch and contain the situation."

But Mitra's request was reportedly not even acknowledged.

Speaking to the press, he also accused Mamata Banerjee of making false promises to party leaders like him. "She had promised me to place me in the Rajya Sabha. However, after the Lok Sabha election results, I was the first one to be removed from the post of district president in North Bengal."

The BJP on Monday overtook the South Dinajpur Zilla Parishad after a majority of TMC members switched parties, including Mitra, who was once an architect of TMC's wins in the region.

Mitra said that he was offered by another senior party rebel Mukul Roy to contest from the Balurghat seat for the BJP even before the Lok Sabha polls. "If I had taken up the offer then, I would have easily won the seat by at least 1 lakh votes," claimed the veteran leader.

In reaction to Mitra abandoning the party, senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim said that the ones who are leaving the party are opportunists. "They are joining the murderers of Gandhiji," said Hakim, "They will regret their decision soon. The BJP will discard them after using them for their party gains."

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier called the ones leaving the party 'corrupt and greedy' and that they should leave the party at the soonest.

Biplab countered the attack by saying that opportunism had never been his way and that he had only left a party that was being run by Mamata Banerjee 'like a 'tyrant'.

The BJP has made major inroads in North Bengal, as was evident from the Lok Sabha elections, where the party won six of the seven seats from the region, including the Balurghat constituency in South Dinajpur.

Party leadership is hoping for early dominance of the state, even before the assembly elections in 2021.