On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned for BJP candidates at an election rally in Suri, Thursday, a group of minority community voters in Birbhum district switched allegiance from the Trinamul Congress (TMC) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Around 40 families from the Labhpur Assembly constituency joined the BJP, triggering a political stir in the region, known as the birthplace of noted Bengali novelist Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay. The development comes barely 13 days ahead of the Assembly polls.
The families, reportedly from the Dwarka area of Labhpur, formally joined the BJP during a party programme, receiving flags from the BJP’s Labhpur candidate, Debashis Ojha.
Mr Ojha alleged that the TMC had long treated the minority community as a vote bank and misled them. “We have consistently maintained that we are not against the minority community, but against illegal infiltrators and Rohingyas. People have now understood that only the BJP can bring development to the area,” he said.
He further claimed that members of the minority community had faced threats of false cases, including narcotics charges, under the TMC. “They now realise that the BJP is not their enemy, which is why they have chosen to join us during the election campaign,” he added.
The ruling party, however, dismissed the significance of the development. Sitting TMC MLA from Labhpur, Abhijit Sinha, said only a handful of individuals had been persuaded to switch sides. “Four to five people were misled into joining the BJP. Such developments will not affect the outcome in Labhpur,” he said.
Mr Sinha also alleged that the Modi government and the Election Commission of India had caused distress among minority voters and accused them of attempting to selectively remove Muslim names from electoral rolls. He asserted that such moves would not alter the electoral prospects in the constituency.