“I am joining the BJP. I am going to Delhi today. I am a man of the people and I will fight from Barrackpore,” Singh said. On being questioned if he has got any assurance that BJP will give him a ticket, he said, “Barrackpore is everything to me. Let the party announce it.”
Targeting minister Partha Bhowmick, who is now the TMC candidate in Barrackpore, Singh said, “I will start campaigning from Naihati. I will ask the famous goddess Boromaa how many buildings and properties Sheikh Shahjahan bought there using someone’s influence. There was already an MLA in Sandeshkhali. Why did the party send this particular MLA there during the tension?”
If Singh joins the BJP this time, it will be the fourth time he has switched allegiance. He was in the TMC when he joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, after the TMC fielded Dinesh Trivedi instead of him from Barrackpore. Though he beat Trivedi and won the seat, Singh returned to the TMC nearly three years later. For the past one and a half years, Singh has been in the TMC but remained an MP.
Singh, a strongman in the Barrackpore industrial belt, won with a margin of 14,857 votes in 2019. He secured 4,72,994 votes, or 42.82 per cent of the vote.
The Barrackpore constituency has a strong presence of Hindi-speaking people, many of whom work in the jute mills. Singh had earlier been elected to the Assembly four times on TMC tickets.
His latest decision has drawn scepticism and criticism.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said, “He had 107 cases against him and was called a traitor. He joined the TMC then. Arjun Singh now says he will join the BJP. It is for the central leadership to take a call.”
BJP leader Falguni Patra said, “If he wants he can come, but the central leadership will decide whether he will get a ticket or not. Whether workers will accept him is another question. The party trusted him once and then he went to the TMC.”
TMC MP Santanu Sen said that people hopping from one party to another after failing to get a poll ticket would not find acceptance in West Bengal.
Noapara, Jagatdal, Naihati, Bhatpara, Amdanga, Barrackpur and Bijpur are the Assembly segments within the Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency.
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar had earlier said, “We never lost touch with Singh, but the decision to field him from Barrackpore can be taken only by the central leadership.”
The BJP’s first list of candidates, released on March 2, did not include any name for Barrackpore. Sources said the saffron party was likely to field Singh from the seat.
“Arjun Singh is a name synonymous with political expediency in West Bengal. Singh’s loyalties lie not with any party ideology, but with the promise of a seat. But he is available for local people all the time and very approachable. So he remains popular in the constituency,” said Amit Saw, a resident of Barrackpore.