Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) chief John Barla. File
| Photograph Credit score: S. Siva Saravanan
Former Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) chief John Barla on Thursday (January 23, 2025) participated in a authorities occasion, a transfer that has triggered widespread hypothesis about whether or not a tribal chief from North Bengal goes to abandon the BJP and be part of the Trinamool Congress.
“She had known as me. There’s a lot to speak about (with the Chief Minister). If the get together ties your arms then you definitely can’t work. I wish to work freely,” the previous Alipurduar MP mentioned after sharing the dais with the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
It isn’t traditional for leaders of the Opposition events to be invited to the occasions of the Chief Minister in West Bengal, however the State authorities had prolonged an invitation for the previous BJP MP. Sources within the Trinamool Congress instructed {that a} formal becoming a member of of the MP didn’t happen as a result of it was a authorities occasion.
Mr. Barla, who had represented Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat as BJP MP from 2019 to 2024, additionally added that the Chief Minister had accomplished numerous work for the event of Dooars area. Within the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP dropped John Barla and fielded Manoj Tigga who received the seat for the BJP.
Because the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP chief had began hitting a discordant word and deviating from the get together line. Mr. Barla rose to political prominence from a tea backyard employee to a pacesetter of Adivasi Vikas Parishad and in addition served because the Union Minister of State within the Ministry of Minority Affairs from July 2021 to June 2024.
Alipurduar has been thought-about one of many strongholds of the BJP and the get together has received vital Meeting seats in 2021 Meeting polls. Nevertheless, within the bypolls at Madarihat in November 2024, the Trinamool Congress defeated the BJP.
Whereas the Trinamool Congress management is assured that John Barla’s presence will enhance the get together’s prospects in north Bengal, the BJP management says that the get together has nothing to fret about him.
“Who’s John Barla? The BJP had accomplished a membership drive final October and he’s not a member of the BJP. He doesn’t even have two votes in his personal sales space,” Chief of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari mentioned.
After the 2021 Meeting polls, the place the Trinamool Congress resisted the BJP’s excessive pitched marketing campaign, over half a dozen MLAs of the BJP have joined the Trinamool Congress.
Revealed – January 24, 2025 06:28 am IST