BJP welcomes Hiran, TMC defector riles ranks in Malda

Kolkata/Malda: Two new BJP members on Thursday evoked opposite sentiments in the party rank and file. While BJP workers welcomed

Tollywood

actor

Hiran Chatterjee

to the saffron family, the entry of Mohammad Yasin — who was until recently Trinamool Congress’ Malda organizer — sparked considerable resentment.

Chatterjee received the BJP flag from Union home minister Amit Shah at the Namkhana meeting in South 24 Parganas, a day after a host of other Tollywood artistes joined the party. The actor had closely worked with the Yuva Trinamool in the past. He built bridges with BJP leaders months ago, apparently after he got “tired with the youth wing of Trinamool”.

According to sources, Chatterjee was scheduled to call on the Union minister at a city hotel during the latter’s

Bengal

trip in January, which got cancelled. “I come from an ordinary family and I can relate to the sufferings of people. I want a meaningful change in the state,” the actor said on Thursday.

In Malda, Yasin’s BJP entry came as “surprise and shock” for the party’s local leaders. Trinamool’s district vice-president, Yasin brought with him three zilla parishad members, along with 150 people’s representatives of North Malda. After joining BJP, he said he felt “suffocated” in Trinamool.

The BJP hopes to reach out to the minority community in the district through Yasin. However, local leaders are yet to come to terms with Yasin’s “excesses” during the 2018 rural polls in Malda. BJP district leader Ajoy Ganguly said: “We had no information about his joining; nor were we consulted.” On the condition of anonymity, a BJP worker of Ratua said: “How can we accept such a communal person and mafia don in our party? So long, we have been fighting against him.”

District Trinamool spokesperson Sumala Agarwala said the party had lost nothing. “With the defection of such leaders (as Yasin), the image of our party will only be cleansed,” she added.