Desertions in TMC as Amit Shah visits West Bengal; here's what happening in state ahead of 2021 assembly election

The Trinamool Congress has received major blows this week.

In yet another jolt to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), party MLA Banasri Maity resigned from the party's primary membership on Friday marking yet another such exit in the past 48 hours. The two-time MLA from West Bengal's Kanthi Uttar constituency said she has sent her resignation to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee over email.

"I do hereby tender my resignation from the primary membership of the All India Trinamool Congress as well as from each and every post or assignment given to me in connection with my membership of the party," Maity said in her letter. This has triggered speculations that the legislator might join the long list of ruling party leaders who are likely to join the BJP. 

The senior TMC leader from East Midnapore district is a loyalist of former TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, whose exit from the party prompted other leaders to follow suit. 

Barrackpore MLA Silbhadra Dutta severed ties with the party on Friday morning. Former minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, too, has announced that he would leave the TMC and join the BJP.

From Hoogly district's Chanditala, Chanditalla I Panchayat Samiti TMC Alamgir Molla resigned from the party citing lack of proper respect in the party. Alamgir said that he sent his letter to the DM of Shrirampur. Alamgir is also a supporter of Suvendu Adhikari and said that he will follow the same path as Adhikari, adding that "if Suvendu Adhikari goes to BJP then he will also go to BJP".

Pandabeswar MLA and Asansol civic body chief Jitendra Tiwari quit the party on Thursday, hours after Adhikari resigned from the primary membership of the Mamata Banerjee- led party. However, on Friday Tiwari mellowed down his stance and expressed his desire to meet the party's top brass, after Union minister Babul Supriyo, speculating his entry into the BJP, said that he wasn't welcome in the party.

Things seem to have taken a different turn for Tiwari, as Supriyo and other BJP leaders opposed his entry into the saffron party. Taking to Facebook, the Union minister said he would try his best to ensure that TMC leaders, who had in the past "tortured" grassroots BJP activists, do not get to join his party.

"What my Top Bosses decide is a different thing, but I will try my very best with all my might & honesty to ensure that NO #TMC leader who tormented, tortured (both Physically & Mentally) my grass root level BJP colleagues in Asansol, don't get an entry in BJP !! (sic)," he said. Supriyo also dismissed rumours that he had "under-the-table dealings with TMC leaders of Asansol".

Reports suggested that BJP state president Dilip Ghosh has also come out in support of Supriyo. Tiwari, on his part, said he has never expressed any desire to join the BJP. "I had never said I would join the party (BJP). I want to meet TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and party leader Abhishek Banerjee. Let's see what happens," he said.

Tiwari resigned as the chairman of the Asansol Municipal Corporation's board of administrators and Paschim Bardhaman district chief on Thursday, days after he accused the West Bengal government of depriving the industrial town of central funds.

News agency PTI sources had said he was supposed to meet Banerjee on Friday and talk about his grievances. Shortly after resigning from the party, however, Tiwari had said he wouldn't meet Banerjee. Hinting that a rebellion was brewing in the ruling party ahead of the assembly polls, Adhikari had on Wednesday night held a closed-door meeting with its disgruntled leaders, including Jitendra Tiwari and senior MP Sunil Mandal, in Paschim Bardhaman district.

Election to the 294-member West Bengal assembly is likely to be held in April-May 2021.