Kolkata: The BJP’s central leadership on Thursday nominated former Trinamool Rajya Sabha MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik as its candidates in this month’s Rajya Sabha bypolls a few hours after they joined the party at its office.The trio resigned from both the Rajya Sabha and the Trinamool Congress a month ago.There was activity at the state administrative headquarters, Nabanna, as well — where Tollywood actor Prosenjit Chatterjee and Murshidabad MP Yusuf Pathan called on CM Suvendu Adhikari — but the pacy Rajya Sabha developments completely overshadowed that.Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya all but let the cat out of the bag in Kolkata even before the BJP headquarters made the formal announcement in Delhi after 9 p.m. “The three MPs resigned from the RS and the Trinamool to support development politics under PM Narendra Modi. Even sages have a past, there are times when one has to read the silence,” he said.Nominations for the RS byelections in Bengal close on July 14 and the polling is scheduled for July 24. The BJP won 208 seats in the assembly poll. But the decision of nearly 65 Trinamool MLAs to form a separate bloc, with Ritabrata Banerjee as their leader, gives it a much bigger advantage in the assembly and a realistic shot at winning all three vacant RS seats from Bengal.The Trinamool’s effective strength in the RS is now down to 10 MPs; it is down to eight in the Lok Sabha.The three former MPs, who joined the BJP on Thursday, said they left the Trinamool because of differences with the leadership and “disillusionment with the corruption and the pace of development” under their erstwhile party.“Bengal turned into a desert during the Left Front and the Trinamool regimes. Factories closed, development stalled. People had decided for a change before the assembly poll but the chief executive (former CM Mamata Banerjee) could not read the writing on the wall. Her party is finished,” Ray said after joining the BJP.PM Modi had paid tributes to his dad and Hindu Mahasabha leader, Shibendu Sekhar Ray, at a rally in Malda this January. Ray had opted to stay silent on the issue then.Dev, before the RS nomination news was announced in Delhi, told the media in Kolkata that she had joined the BJP without any aspiration for a ticket. “The party will decide. I was shocked by the corruption (in the Trinamool) over the years. Modiji has delivered to people on the last mile. The BJP will need two years to change Bengal’s face,” she said.The loyalist faction of the Trinamool refused to attach too much importance to the defections and nominations. “What is new in this? They went with them (the BJP) to save their seats. The BJP has given them nominations. We do not face any loss and I doubt there will be any benefit for the BJP. People who switch sides are of no importance,” Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy said.“We are not bothered by their exit. The Trinamool’s strengths are people and Mamata Banerjee. People will have the last word on those who have forgotten that,” Trinamool RS MP Dola Sen said.Rebel Trinamool face and assembly opposition leader Ritabrata Banerjee said he would soon speak to the three defectors.At Nabanna, Tollywood actor Chatterjee refused to attribute political motives to his meeting with CM Adhikari. “We had coffee and chatted. We discussed the development of the Tollywood industry, Mahanayak Uttam Kumar and a tribute on his death anniversary. People will come to know if I ever join politics,” he said. Union home minister Amit Shah, too, visited Chatterjee at the latter’s Ballygunge home on Monday.Pathan did not speak to the media.
