Jolt for Congress: Heavyweights from Nadia join Trinamool

West Bengal Pradesh Congress on Wednesday received a jolt after two of its MLAs from Nadia including party heavyweight Shankar Singh joined the Trinamool Congrress.

Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee and Abhishek Banerjee handed over the party flag to them and inducted them to the fold. The other MLA who joined Trinamool Congress is Arindam Bhattacharya. It may be recalled that another Congress heavyweight Manas Bhuniya had earlier joined the Trinamool Congress and has been nominated for Rajya Sabha as a party candidate. The strength which had bagged 44 seats in 2016 Assembly election has been reduced to 36 now while the TMC is at 221 from 211.

Shankar Singh was elected from Ranaghat North-West Assembly constituency while Bhattacharya defeated Ajay Dey of Trinamool Congress in the 2016 Assembly elections. Along with them, several other Congress leaders including Sarbadarshan Bandopadhyay, Pratap Kanti Roy, Sobha Nandi, Nandadulal Roy, Kumaresh Chakraborty, Tarak Sadhukhan, Saradindu Debnath of CPI(M) and Tapan Dhar of DYFI joined Trinamool Congress.

After their joining Trinamool Congress, the existence of Congress in Nadia district will be at stake.

Singh, who was very close to Somen Mitra, is an undisputed leader of Nadia. Despite the Trinamool Congress wave in the 2016 elections, Singh defeated his Trinamool Congress opponent by a margin of over 16,000 votes as a candidate of Congress-CPI(M) alliance. Earlier, there were rumors even before the 2016 Assembly elections that Singh would join Trinamool. But as a diehard Congress worker, he accepted the "illegal" alliance between Congress and CPI(M) and fought the Assembly election. Singh was against the alliance initially but later accepted the party's decision.

Known for his political acumen, Singh is a hardcore organiser and Trinamool will be able to use him before the Panchayat elections scheduled to be held in 2018. He joined Congress at an early age and became close to Somen Mitra. When veteran Congress leaders like Subrata Mukherjee and Somen Mitra joined Trinamool, Singh preferred to stay back in the party and increase its base in Nadia.

Arindam Bhattacharya had defeated Ajay Dey of Trinamool Congress by over 14,000 votes in 2016. Dey had joined Trinamool from Congress. Bhattacharya has become the secretary of Youth Trinamool Congress and is very popular in the area.

The joining of these two heavyweights along with other leaders will pose a serious threat to the existence of Congress in Nadia district. The party leaders have failed to rope in young blood but the party had solid base in some pockets and because of this, along with CPI(M), the party had bagged two seats in Nadia district despite the Mamata Banerjee wave.

The CPI(M) has pocket votes but the joining of party leaders will open the floodgate and many more will join Trinamool Congress soon as the young CPI(M) and DYFI workers feel that the party's future in the state is bleak. Making Singh the working president of Nadia, Trinamool Congress' organisational strength will go up in the district.

Singh said he would be able to serve his constituency in a much better way and will try to bring all round development in Nadia district.