Don't want thieves: Mamata on MLAs defecting
June 18, 2019  18:03
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In wake of the massive exodus of members of the legislative assembly and councillors from her party to the Bharatiya Janata Party over the past couple of months, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she does not want thieves in her party.

The TMC is not a weak party. If our MLAs want to leave, they can. I do not care if 15-20 Councillors quit the party by accepting cash. We dont want thieves in TMC. If one person leaves, I will prepare 500 more, she said in Kolkata during an event.

Her statement comes a day after TMC legislator Sunil Singh joined the BJP along with his associates in presence of BJPs West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya and veteran TMC-turned-BJP politician Mukul Roy in New Delhi. As many as 12 TMC Councillors also joined the BJP on Monday.

Singh is the third TMC leader to quit the party and shift allegiances to BJP after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP made massive inroads into West Bengal, upping their early tally of 2 to 18 this year. Seeing the Modi wave turning around BJPs fortunes in Bengal for the first time since Independence, several opposition leaders in the state chose to switch sides hoping for greener pastures.

Last month, around 50-60 TMC councillors and 2 MLAs (along with one CPM MLA) joined the BJP in the presence of Vijayvargiya dealing a massive blow to Mamatas hopes to salvage her state from the saffron partys influence.
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