Trinamul MLA joins BJP..... BHATPARA LEGISLATORARJUN SINGH SEVERS 30-YEAR-OLD ASSOCIATION WITH MAMATA

TT, 15 Mar 2019, Calcutta: Trinamul's fourtime Bhatpara MLA Arjun Singh joined the BJP on Thursday, ending a three-decade association with Mamata Banerjee after her efforts to placate him remained futile. 

Singh, 56, is the fifth sitting lawmaker from Bengal -- after Trinamul's Bishnupur MP Saumitra Khan, Bolpur MP Anupam Hazra, the Congress's Bagda MLA Dulal Bar and the CPM's Habibpur MLA Khagen Murmu -- to switch sides before the announcement of the BJP's list of Bengal candidates. 

"We have been in touch with several leaders of other parties, especially Trinamul, over the last few years…. Many of those, who can't make it to their parties'' list of candidates, are showing interest in joining us. Our national leaders are trying to accommodate them in our list of candidates," said a source in the BJP. 

Though the promise of a ticket from Barrackpore ­ Singh's backyard for years from where the Trinamul has nominated two-time MP Dinesh Trivedi ­ swung Singh towards the BJP, he presented a different narrative and blamed Mamata Banerjee's recent comments as the trigger behind the switch. 

"Her (Mamata's) statements on Pulwama, while the whole nation was coping with grief, shook my faith in her," said Bhatpara's civic chairman Singh at the BJP's national headquarters, alongside the party's Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya and state leader Mukul Roy. 

"Then, after the IAF strike, she demanded proof by way of bodies of slain terrorists.... If a leader aspiring for a national role does not even have the interests of the nation in mind, simply for her vote-bank politics, what good will she do for the people?" asked Singh, believed to wield considerable influence in the Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency and known for a vital role in Trivedi's victories from the seat in 2009 and 2014.

Singh ­ the son of the Congress's three-time Bhatpara MLA Satyanarayan Singh -went on to accuse Trinamul of having become money-minded.

"Trinamul used to stand for Ma, Mati, Manush. Now, it is MMM ­ money, money, money," he said, after snapping his ties with the ruling party in Bengal.

Trinamul sources said that Singh had been actively lobbying for a Lok Sabha berth from Barrackpore and had conveyed to Mamata about his interest to contest from the seat, which has a significant Hindispeaking population. Singh has always had considerable clout in the industrial belts of Barrackpore and was a bitter rival of Roy, who also cut his teeth as a young leader in the area.

Mamata, according to Trinamul sources, had met Singh and Trivedi together on Monday, trying her best to convince the MLA to stay on by promising a ministerial berth and Lok Sabha candidature from a seat in Bihar or Jhark- hand. Singh was Trinamul's observer for the two neighbouring states, besides the chief of the party's Hindi wing.

After it became clear that Singh was not staying, the chief minister said in a news conference on Wednesday: "There are one or two who are greedy for candidature"Those who want to go, we will be better off without them... Those who engineer defections using money, I condemn them," she had said.

Though Mamata said that she didn't care about such exits, sources in the party said that there were jitters in the ruling camp. After Singh's defection, questions arose on whether his brother-in-law Sunil Singh, Trinamul's Noapara MLA and Garulia civic chairman, would follow suit.