Malda North MP Mausam Benazir Noor, who had joined the Trinamul Congress on Tuesday, was welcomed by hundreds of ruling party supporters and district leaders here on Wednesday afternoon.
As she arrived at the Malda Town station, the MP was mobbed by supporters, who greeted her with bouquets and shook hands with her.
“It is only Mamata Banerjee who has launched a tirade against the BJP. I wanted the Congress to join hands with Trinamul. But Congress leaders did not take any decision on the issue. That is why I decided to join Trinamul and work to remove the BJP from power,” said Mausam.
On Tuesday, Mausam, the Malda district Congress chief since 2013, formally announced alongside Mamata at Nabanna that she was joining Trinamul.
Her decision has come as a jolt for the Congress, which announced that Sujapur MLA Isha Khan Chowdhury would fight as the party’s candidate against her in the Lok Sabha polls this summer.
Mausam also tried to play the Ghani card to justify her switch to Trinamul.
“My uncle, the late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, always advocated for secularism and had focussed on development. Mamata Banerjee believes the same and I want to work with her. I also want the Congress MLAs and other leaders to join Triamul and work for the development of Malda,” she said.
At a news conference in Calcutta, Congress state chief Somen Mitra lambasted Mausam for her decision, calling her defection “beimani (treachery)”.
“Repeatedly, she told everyone within the party and outside that she did not want to switch to Trinamul. But we had been getting reports to the contrary. Even on Tuesday, at 11.30am, I called her, seeking a clarification. She said she was dropping her kids to school and would call back. She never did. In the evening, we found out that she had joined Trinamul,” said Mitra.
“What she has done to the party can only be described as beimani. She is not going to win from Malda North on a Trinamul ticket. But this action, by her and her new party, only helps the BJP in Malda,” he added.
Congress’s Bengal minder Gaurav Gogoi also said at the news conference that Mausam’s exit would not affect the party and clarified that Mamata (without naming her) believed in treating the Congress high-command to rassogolla in New Delhi, while destroying the party in the state.
The Mausam surprise sent the Malda district Congress leadership into a huddle at Isha’s Kotwali residence.
But no decision was taken on the new district president.