Two-time Haldia MLA and BJP leader Tapasi Mondal on Monday joined the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) — her second switch in the last five years.
Mondal, who was previously with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), is considered close to Leader of Opposition and BJP MLA from Nandigram Suvendu Adhikari.
Her move to the TMC, a year ahead of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, is being seen as a blow to the BJP in Purba Medinipur — Adhikari’s stronghold where the port town of Haldia is located.
Adhikari had defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in the last Assembly polls by a margin of 1,956 votes.
Accusing the BJP of “indulging in divisive politics”, Mondal said: “The BJP is trying to flare up communal tensions in the state. It is pursuing divisive politics, and the people of this state have repeatedly rejected it… I repeatedly tried to say this within the party but the leadership ignored me. It was getting tough for me to accept such politics.”
“So, I decided to join TMC. I decided to be a part of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s developmental initiatives,” she added after joining the TMC in presence of state Power and Youth Affairs Minister Aroop Biswas in Kolkata.
In a post on X, the TMC said, “Welcoming BJP’s Haldia MLA Tapasi Mondal to the Trinamool Congress family! Her decision to join us is a testament to the growing disillusionment with BJP’s politics. Under the leadership of Smt.@MamataOfficial, she will work tirelessly for the people’s welfare.”
First elected as an MLA from Haldia as a CPI(M) candidate in 2016, Mondal joined the BJP after four years and won the seat again in the 2021 Assembly polls, beating TMC’s Swapan Naskar by over 15,000 votes.
Mondal claimed “she didn’t get any advantage from the Central government” even though she “was a BJP MLA”. “I had no power to serve the people of Haldia. But people of Haldia also have aspirations that their MLA would do some work for them. So, I decided to join the TMC and participate in the developmental work of Mamata Banerjee,” she said.
The BJP, however, denied that the move will affect the party. Speaking to the mediapersons after Mondal joined the TMC, Adhikari said: “Earlier, Mukut Mani Adhikari, Krishna Kalyani, and Biswajit Das also joined the TMC and became candidates in Lok Sabha elections but the people defeated them. The people will not accept this. Tapasi Mondal wanted to become district president as well as MLA in the party, but the leadership did not allow that. She has no organisation and nobody — not even a booth president — went with her. People will reject such political opportunists.”
Mondal is not the first BJP lawmaker to join the TMC. After the BJP won 77 seats in the 294-member Assembly in the 2021 elections, its 12 MLAs joined the ruling party, reducing the party’s strength to 65.
Two BJP MPs also joined the TMC. However, Barrackpore’s Arjun Singh returned to the BJP after he was denied a ticket by the TMC in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Some of these 12 legislators did not resign as BJP MLAs, while a few had given up their memberships of the Assembly to force bypolls in their seats and return to the House after winning them.