Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's brother joins Trinamool Congress

MALDA: Trinamool Congress engineered another defection in Congress ranks, luring Satya Ranjan Dasmunsi, younger brother of ailing Congress stalwart Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, to their party on Friday.

Dasmunsi, it is widely believed, will be pitted by Trinamool against his sister-in-law - and Union minister of state for urban development - Deepa Dasmunshi, Priyaranjan's wife, in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls in the Dasmunsi bastion of North Dinajpur's Raiganj.

The elation at Trinamool Bhawan where Trinamool national secretary Mukul Roy handed the party flag to Dasmunsi and his aides, was not felt back home in North Dinajpur's Kaliachowk where the Dasmunsi family lives.

District Congress president Mohit Sengupta appeared to be at his caustic best, "All I know of Satya Ranjan's political antecedents is that he had on a few occasions been seen with his elder brother Priya Ranjan at public meetings. He was never a whole-time Congress party worker either. He was never an active member of Congress. The party will not be harmed if he leaves."

Deepa said: "I do not want to react to this. If he wants to, he can join Trinamool or any other party. People are seeing this and it is they who will decide at the end." According to sources, Dasmunsi was a PCC member from 1972 to 1990.

After North Dinajpur, Trinamool is eyeing another defection on November 10 which will allow it to gain a toehold in the Left Front-run Old Malda municipality , where the Left Front has 12 councillors . All six Congress councillors of this civic board are set to join Trinamool.

Congress MP Mousam Noor did not hide her disappointment. "I had heard of the Old Malda councillors' plan to defect . I had a talk with them. But I'm not confident that they could be retained in our party as the temptation is huge on the other side." She conceded, "It will be a great loss for our party."