Five from Trinamool jump ship to BJP ahead of Bengal polls

Kolkata, March 8 (IANS) Barely a few weeks ahead of the high-voltage Assembly polls in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress leader Sarala Murmu, who had received a ticket for the upcoming elections last week, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.Besides Murmu, four-time Trinamool MLA from Satgachhia Sonali Guha, sitting Singur MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya, five-time outgoing MLA from Shibpur Jatu Lahiri and former India footballer and one time MLA from Basirhat Dakshin, Dipendu Biswas, also joined the saffron camp.Apart from Murmu, the other four Trinamool leaders were denied tickets to contest the elections. The Trinamool leaders joined the BJP in the presence of the party's state unit chief Dilip Ghosh and other leaders like Suvendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy on Monday afternoon.Earlier, the ruling Trinamool Congress had hurriedly withdrew Murmu's name from the candidates' list, citing her ill health as the reason for making the change.There were speculation that Murmu might leave the Trinamool and join the BJP. Murmu was a party candidate from Habibpur in Malda.
--IANS sbn/arm