WB-TMC-OPP

With a TMC MP joining the BJP

ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress and the CPI(M)

Thursday said the party that started the "unethical political

culture" of poaching elected representatives is now getting

back the dose of its own medicine.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP from Bishnupur Lok Sabha

seat in Bankura district, Saumitra Khan, Wednesday joined BJP

in New Delhi. The party expelled him along with its Bolpur Lok

Sabha MP Anupam Hazra for anti party activities.

"After coming to power in 2011, the TMC had started

this culture of poaching elected representatives of the

Congress and Left parties. It was an alien culture in Bengal

politics. Now the TMC is getting the dose of it medicine,"

Leader of the opposition and senior Congress leader Abdul

Mannan said.

Echoing the views of Mannan, the CPI(M) said the

"fixed political match" between the TMC and the BJP in Bengal

had started taking toll on Mamata Banerjee's party.

More than 16 MLAs of the Congress and six of the Left

parties had switched over to the TMC in the state between 2011

and 2016. Since the 2016 Assembly poll, 12 Congress MLAs and

three of the Left Front joined the ruling party.

"We feel that it's a fixed political match where

elected representatives of the TMC are at ease by joining the

BJP. The fixed political match has started taking its toll on

the TMC in the state," CPI(M) central committee leader Sujan

Chakraborty said.

When Congress and Left MLAs joined the Trinamool, the

party had claimed that they are changing side to take part in

the developmental process ushered by Mamata Banerjee regime.

But the opposition parties maintained that the TMC was

abusing its power to force their MLAs to switchover to the

ruling party.