Barrackpore may see a 2019 rematch as Trinamool leader Arjun Singh set to return to BJP

Trinamool Congress leader Arjun Singh on Thursday said he would join the BJP on Friday. 

Upset at being denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Barrackpore, Trinamool Congress leader Arjun Singh on Thursday said he would join the BJP on Friday. 

The development at Barrackpore, ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls, is similar to what had occurred ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when after being denied ticket by the Trinamool Congress, Mr. Singh joined the BJP and contested the polls on the saffron party ticket. He returned to the Trinamool Congress in May 2022. The Barrackpore MP, who had defeated Trinamool candidate Dinesh Trivedi in 2019 by a margin of about 13,000 votes, expressed his desire to contest the Lok Sabha polls from the same seat on a BJP ticket. “If the party [BJP] gives me an opportunity to contest in Barrackpore, I will give a befitting reply to those who indulged in post-poll violence in 2021,” Mr. Singh said. His son Pawan Singh is a BJP legislator from Bhatpara that lies under the Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency.

Barrackpore, with a number of jute mills in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas had witnessed communal unrest and electoral violence between 2019 and 2021, which resulted in several deaths.

On Thursday, Mr. Arjun Singh said that “at least one top Trinamool Congress leader” would be joining the saffron party along with him. Sources in the BJP said Trinamool Congress MP from Tamuk, Dibyendu Adhikari, who is brother of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, might join the BJP. The BJP has fielded Soumendu Adhikari, another brother of Mr. Suvendu Adhikari from the Kanthi Lok Sabha seat.

Meanwhile, targeting the Trinamool candidate from Barrackpore and State Irrigation Minister Partha Bhowmick, Mr. Arjun Singh raised questions about his alleged links with Sheikh Shahjahan.

“Why did the TMC top brass send Partha Bhowmik, instead of the local MLA to Sandeshkhali to defend Shahjahan and his cohorts? That’s because he had close contacts with Sheikh and needed to secure the evidence connecting him to Sheikh in the wake of the ED raid,” the Barrackpore MP said.

Mr. Arjun Singh said that not only Sheikh Shahjahan, but his associates Shiba Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar had also bought bighas after bighas of plots and other properties in Naihati. Mr. Bhowmick, who is an MLA from Naihati, refuted all the charges and said he was sent to Sandeshkhali to interact with locals who were protesting.