Former Tripura BJP MLA who joined TMC quits party

Agartala, May 27 (IANS) Former BJP MLA Ashis Das, who last year quit the saffron party and joined the Trinamool Congress, resigned from the TMC on Friday alleging "internal groupism" in the party.

Das, severely criticising the Trinamool's National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, said that there is no democratic environment in both the BJP and the TMC.

A leader of the Scheduled Caste community, the 44-year-old Das announced he was quitting the Trinamool two days after the Election Commission declared the schedule of by-elections to four assembly constituencies in Tripura including Surma from where he was elected to the assembly in 2018 as a BJP candidate.

Due to his defection Das lost his assembly membership, paving the way for the by-poll in Surma. Before joining the TMC in Agartala, Das went to Kolkata and offered puja at Kalighat temple and shaved his head in an "act of atonement" for being associated with "a communal party BJP". He also praised TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Besides Das, two other BJP MLAs, Sudip Roy Barman and Ashis Kumar Saha also quit the party and the assembly membership following open differences with former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who resigned from the top post on May 14 following the instructions of the party's Central leadership.

Roy Barman, also a former BJP Minister, and Saha joined the Congress in February this year.