Six Trinmool Congress Members Joined BJP As One Congress Men May Also Change Camp

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 After acquiring all six lawmakers of the Trinamool Congress in Tripura, the BJP is now surveying the Congress. Sources in the BJP claim at least one Congress lawmaker is open to the idea of changing camp. 

The man is Ratan Lal Nath, a former leader of opposition, who has influence in 10 seats of the state. Assembly polls will be held next year in Tripura, which has been a Marxist bastion for 24 years. 

 In little more than one year, the party, which had zero footprint in the northeast, formed government in three states - Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam finance minister and the BJP's key strategist for north-east, is upbeat.

The party had formed the government in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh last year after a mass exodus of legislators from the People's Party of Arunachal. No less than 33 lawmakers from the party had joined the BJP. 

 The men who changed camp from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP, say they felt an ideological compulsion to join the BJP. "We left the Congress to join the Trinamool Congress in 2016, so we can fight the Left. 

But now Mamata is non-allergic to the Left," Sudip Roy Burman, former Trinamool legislator, told to reporters, referring to party chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

 Congress's Mr Nath too, had a similar complaint. The party, he said, was not interested in fighting for change in Tripura.

 "This is because in Delhi, they have close links with CPM leaders. But the BJP has no links with the CPM in Delhi or at the state level," he added.

 The man whom the BJP's resolution may affect the most, sounded unconcerned. "Since the birth of Left Front government, we have faced conspiracies and have been victorious," CPM's Chief Minister Manik Sarkar toldto reporters.

 "The people of Tripura, along with people from other states, have been realising what the BJP has been doing and what they had promised," he added.

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