West Bengal: Suvendu Adhikari says state BJP will move apex court on “MLA defection” issue

Citing the examples of recent case filed at the Supreme Court on defection of 10 legislators at Telangana, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the state assembly Suvendu Adhikari said on Tuesday that his party will now move the apex court on the “MLA defection” issue and even make the state assembly speaker Biman Bandopadhyay a party in the matter.

This comes a day after the BJP Haldia MLA Tapasi Mondal joined Trinamool Congress but retained her tag of BJP legislator. Mondal won with a BJP ticket in 2021 from Haldia Assembly Constituency. Ahead of Mondal, from 2021 onwards several BJP MLAs had retained such a tag even after crossing over to Trinamool.

“On March 25, Telangana’s defection related hearing is due. The case has been filed at the apex court on defection of 10 legislators at Telangana. We are waiting for the order. BJP will also move the Court on the issue of MLA defection in West Bengal and the Speaker will be made a party there,” Adhikari said.


Post 2021 assembly polls victory, the total tally of the BJP MLAs have been reduced from 77 to 65, with recent resignation of Mondal. However, most of the BJP MLAs who have defected to Trinamool Congress have not resigned and retained the ‘BJP legislator’ tag. After winning the polls from May 2021 to October, five BJP MLAs had joined to Trinamool Congress, bringing down the numbers to 70. BJP had won 77 seats in the 2021 assembly polls, out of which two had retained their MP posts.

“There is double standard of the defected MLAs. When the defected MLAs come outside the assembly, they call themselves Trinamool while inside the House they are BJP in papers. Chief Minister claimed Mukul Roy is in BJP while the Speaker says Suman Kanjilal is also member of BJP. With those calculations, our numbers have not reduced but remains 70,” Adhikari added.

Speaking to the media outside the assembly premises on Tuesday afternoon, Adhikari

“The actions of the Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay is rash and “Unconstitutional” and we will defeat Trinamool in 2026,” Adhikari said.

Adhikari said that in the coming days, BJP aims to step up protests and demonstrations within the Speaker’s constituency of Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district.