Ahead of the West Bengal polls, former Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Dinesh Trivedi on Saturday joined the BJP.
BJP president JP Nadda welcomed him into the party’s fold claiming that Trivedi crossed over not on account of “opportunism” but for the “ideological reasons”.
The 70-year-old Trivedi maintained that he has switched sides to “serve the country better”.
“This was the golden moment I had been waiting for,” Trivedi said after joining the BJP at party headquarters here in the presence of Nadda and Union Minister Piyush Goyal.
Trivedi resigned his Rajya Sabha and Trinamool membership on February 12, saying he felt “suffocated” because of the violence in West Bengal and his inability to do anything about it.Alluding to ‘parivar’ in West Bengal, he said after joining the BJP he felt being with the “janta parivar”.
“Bengal has huge potential but still people are going out to work to other cities. The State is full of corruption and gundaraj. Today, the people of Bengal are happy that a parivartan is going to take place under BJP,” said Trivedi as he joined the saffron party.
Nadda said, “Former TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi was right person in wrong party, now he is in right party.” The BJP president said Trivedi came over to the BJP on account of “ideological reasons” and not because of “opportunism”.
A number of sitting and former Trinamool members have in recent weeks switched sides and defected to the BJP.
The party’s former Rajya Sabha MP, actor Mithun Chakraborty is expected to share the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday at a Kolkata parade ground rally.
Among those who have moved from the Trinamool to the BJP are sitting MPs, State Ministers, MLAs, top leaders besides hordes of grassroots workers. This includes Trinamool stalwarts such as Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee.
The State elections will be held across eight phases from March 27 to April 29, the results of which will be declared on May 2.
Sunday, 07 March 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
