News Analysis India

Tag: Sonali Guha

  • Trinamool turncoats welcomed into BJP by neglecting old-timers will quit one by one: Tathagata Roy

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Continuing his tirade against a section of the party leadership, senior BJP leader Tathagata Roy on Monday said those TMC turncoats who were welcomed into the saffron party by neglecting old-timers have shown their “true colours” and will return to their old party one by one.

    TMC turncoats Sonali Guha, Sarala Murmu and Amal Acharya, who had joined the BJP before the West Bengal assembly elections, have expressed their desire to return to the ruling party in the state and said they regretted their decision to join the BJP.

    “My words have proved to be true. Those who were welcomed into the BJP with open arms, those new entrants who were granted such rousing reception while old-timers of 20-30 years were given short shrift and subjected to total neglect, are now set to return to the TMC one by one,” Roy, known for his controversial statements, said.

    After the BJP’s poor performance in the assembly elections, in which it bagged only 77 seats while the TMC won 213 constituencies, the former governor of Tripura and Meghalaya said that “unwanted elements” from the ruling party in West Bengal had joined the saffron camp ahead of the polls.

    On the TMC turncoats’ wish to return to their old party, senior leader and MP Sougata Roy said that in his opinion, these turncoats should not be inducted into the Trinamool Congress within the next six months.

    “Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee will take the final decision in this regard. But, in my view, they should not be inducted into the party within six months’ time.”

    “Our grassroots level activists had worked so hard during poll campaigning against the BJP’s sustained adverse campaign and money power. We may look into their sentiments,” Roy said.

    TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the party is preoccupied with the fight against COVID-19 and does not have time for other issues.

  • ‘Mistake to have joined BJP’: After Sonali Guha, now Sarala Murmu wants to rejoin TMC 

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: With the TMC having emerged victorious with a thumping majority in the recently concluded assembly elections, turncoats who had quit the party to join the BJP seem to be making a beeline for re-entry into the Mamata Banerjee camp, the latest being Sarala Murmu.

    Murmu, who had switched camp as she was reportedly unhappy with the ticket that was given to her by the ruling party, has expressed her desire to return to the TMC, a day after Banerjee’s former aide, Sonali Guha, made a similar appeal.

    Claiming that it was a mistake on her part to have joined the BJP, Murmu said that she wants party supremo Mamata Banerjee to pardon her.

    “If she accepts me, I will stay with her and work for the party diligently,” Murmu told reporters at her Malda home. Murmu was nominated from Habibpur seat in Malda, but party sources had then claimed that she was keen on contesting the election from Maldaha constituency.

    “I committed a mistake and want Didi (Banerjee) to pardon me for that,” she said.

    Former TMC MLA Sonali Guha had on Saturday written to Banerjee, apologising to her for leaving the party.

    The four-time MLA from Satgachhia in South 24 Parganas district, in a letter which she also shared on social media, said, “The way a fish cannot stay out of the water, I will not be able to live without you, ‘Didi’.

    I seek your forgiveness and if you don’t forgive me, I won’t be able to live.

    Please allow me to come back, and spend the rest of my life in your affection.

  • TMC turncoat Sonali Guha who joined BJP writes to Mamata, wants to come back

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Former MLA Sonali Guha, who joined the BJP after being denied a ticket by the TMC in the Assembly elections, has decided to quit the saffron camp and wrote an open letter to Mamata Banerjee expressing her interest to return to the fold of the ruling party. She also apologised for her wrong decision to quit the TMC.

    On her Twitter handle, Sonali wrote, “I am writing this with a broken heart that I took the wrong decision of joining another party after being emotional. I could not get accustomed there. The way a fish cannot stay out of water, I will not be able to live without you Didi. I seek your forgiveness and if you don’t forgive me, I won’t be able to live. Please allow me to come back and spend the rest of my life in your affection.”

    Sonali joined the BJP two days after the TMC announced the list of candidates. The four-time MLA, once considered to be the shadow of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, was among the slew of TMC MLAs who switched over to the BJP before the Assembly elections.

    Kunal Ghosh, the spokesperson of the TMC, said, “The party has not yet taken any decision to accept those who had left the party during the tough time that it faced before the elections.”

  • West Bengal polls: TMC faces fresh spate of defections; 5 sitting MLAs, other leaders join BJP 

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Monday lost five more sitting MLAs and the control of the Malda Zilla Parishad to the BJP as defections continued to rock West Bengal’s ruling party ahead of the assembly polls.

    Four-time MLAs Sonali Guha, a close associate of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee for decades, and 80-year-old Rabindranath Bhattacharya, a prominent face of the Singur movement, joined the saffron party after they were denied the poll ticket.

    Another four-time legislator, 85-year-old Jatu Lahiri, and former footballer Dipendu Biswas, a first-time MLA, also switched sides after their names did not feature in the TMC’s candidate list released on March 5.

    They were handed over party flags by BJP state president Dilip Ghosh in presence of other leaders such as Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy.

    One more TMC MLA, Sital Sardar.

    also joined the saffron party later.

    Hours after being replaced due to “ill health”, Sarala Murmu, the TMC candidate of the Habibpur constituency in Malda district, too switched sides.

    There was speculation earlier that she might join the BJP as she did not get the seat she had desired.

    The party replaced her with Pradeep Baskey in the morning.

    A number of sitting TMC MLAs, including ministers, have joined the saffron camp in recent months.

    The BJP also took control of the 38-member Malda Zilla Parishad after its 22 members changed sides.

    Bengali actress Tanusree Chakraborty also joined the BJP. Assembly elections in the state will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29.

    Votes will be counted on May 2.

  • Denied ticket, TMC MLA Sonali Guha hints at joining BJP ahead of West Bengal polls

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Sonali Guha, once a close aide of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and a four-time MLA of the party, on Saturday hinted at joining BJP after she was denied a ticket for the coming assembly poll in West Bengal.

    The TMC MLA, who represented Satgachia seat for the past four terms, had broken down on Friday immediately after getting the news that she was not being given the party ticket this time.

    Guha said she will speak to BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and decide her future course of action.

    “I wish to be given a honourable post, be acknowledged as a political personality,” Guha said without elaborating.

    She said, “May God give Mamata didi good sense and counsel. I have been with her from the beginning. I have to think about my future moves. I cannot sit idle being a political person”.

    Roy said apart from Guha many other Trinamool MLAs and leaders have contacted him since Friday evening after Banerjee announced the party’s candidates for 291 assembly seats in the state.

    Several TMC MLAs, an MP and a number of its leaders have already joined the saffron party.

    Guha was seen in every movement and rally by Banerjee during her days in the opposition and after TMC came to power a decade ago.

    She was also a former deputy speaker of the state assembly.