Kolkata: BJP’s Kaliaganj MLA Soumen Roy, who had joined the BJP from Trinamool Congress and defected to TMC again after the 2021 state assembly polls, joined a meeting of the BJP lawmakers at the Salt lake party office. Roy, who had earlier claimed that he could not accept “the BJP culture” on Wednesday, claimed that he wanted to work with the BJP in the forthcoming years. Roy had been in touch with the BJP Rajya Sabha MP Ananta Maharaj for the past few months.
After Roy decided to re-join the BJP, Bengal BJP minders Mangal Pandey, Sunil Bansal and Amit Malviya held a meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss his rejoining. He was allowed after Bengal leaders received a nod from the BJP leaders in New Delhi.
“This is not a question of rejoining. They (BJP lawmakers who defected to the TMC) declared themselves as the BJP MLAs in the assembly, after we served a notice under the provisions of anti-defection law. However, this is not a pattern for ghar-wapsi. Mukul Roy tried to do the same thing and that was rejected,” said Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of opposition.
“Soumen Roy had criticized the BJP even during the panchayat poll, but that was done under duress. He has never volunteered to bad mouth about the party,” Adhikari said.