NEW DELHI: Arjun Singh, the Lok Sabha member from West Bengal’s Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district who has been denied a ticket from the Trinamool Congress for the upcoming general elections joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday in the national capital.
The Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh on Friday officially returned to the BJP fold.
Addressing the reporters, Arjun Singh hit out at the TMC, accusing it of remaining in power with the help of “police and goons”.
“I became an MP in 2019 (from BJP) and in 2021…after post-poll violence, I had to keep my distance from the BJP to save the party workers. They were being murdered…I saw that the TMC government wants to just stay in power with the help of Police and goons. We saw its most recent example in Sandeshkhali. There is not just one Sandeskhali, people in the border areas of Bengal are living like those in Sandeshkhali…” Singh said.
Along with Singh, TMC’s Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari, the brother of BJP leader Suvendhu Adhikari also joined the BJP.
Earlier on Wednesday, March 14, Singh hinted at his return to the BJP, saying that the TMC meted out ‘injustice’ to him.
The ruling party in the state, earlier, dropped Singh and fielded state minister and TMC MLA Partha Bhowmick, instead, from the Barrackpore seat for the Lok Sabha elections.
Singh started his political career by winning the Bhatpara Municipality Election as a councillor of the Congress before switching over to the TMC in 2001.
However, on the eve of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he quit the TMC and joined the BJP. Winning nomination from the Barrackpore seat, he trounced his TMC rival to make it to the Lower House.
However, a year after the BJP’s defeat to the TMC in the 2021 Assembly elections, Singh returned to the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
At a massive show of strength in the heart of Kolkata, the TMC announced its candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state on March 10. (ANI)