Kolkata: Amid speculations of BJP legislators switching sides to Trinamool Congress (TMC), the sitting BJP legislator from Tripura, Asish Das clarified that he is going to be a defector. Das is set to join TMC on Wednesday afternoon.
He reached Kolkata on Tuesday noon and he tonsured his head as a measure of 'atonement for being associated with BJP' for a while. “Being associated with BJP is a crime. I joined BJP to free Tripura from the 25-year long misrule of CPI(M). So I committed a crime by mistake. So I want to free myself from that sin by offering Puja at Kalighat temple,” he said.
Trinamool Congress stepped in Tripura’s political ambit a few years back. But it was not able to manage anything substantial at the initial period. However, for the last few months, the Trinamool Congress leadership has been strengthening the party's support bases in the state.
Trinamool Congress’s all-India general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, had visited Tripura multiple times. Other leaders of the TMC also frequently visited there. The ruling party of West Bengal already claimed that it would emerge as the victor in the next Tripura assembly elections, ousting the Biplab Deb-led and BJP- ruled state government there.
In the midst of speculations over defections from the BJP, the spotlight was on Sudip Ray Burman. He started his political career with Congress and then joined Trinamool Congress and finally shifted to BJP. He also became a minister in the BJP cabinet there. But his bitter-sweet relations with Biplab Deb often stoked controversy. Later he resigned as the minister.
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