John Barla, the former BJP MP of Alipurduar, has received an invitation to attend the public distribution programme of chief minister Mamata Banerjee on January 23.
On Tuesday, Mamata will reach Alipurduar. She will attend an administrative review meeting and a public distribution event in the next two days.
“I received a verbal invitation to attend the chief minister’s programme. I will reach home on January 22. The next day, I will reach the venue,” Barla, also a former Union minister of state, said over the phone from Delhi on Monday.
Barla is undergoing eye treatment at AIIMS in Delhi, he said.
Barla, who won the Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat in 2019, was angry when the party chose Manoj Tigga over him as the candidate in the 2024 polls. Tigga won the seat.
As Barla continued to distance himself from the BJP, there was talk that he might defect to the TMC.
Barla hails from the Lakhipara tea estate in Jalpaiguri district’s Banarhat block.
“The BJP has duped the tribal population in the Dooars. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP was ahead by 45,000 votes in the Nagrakata Assembly segment (his home constituency) while in 2024, it was behind the TMC by around 3,500 votes. It indicates tribal people have stopped backing the BJP,” he said.
He pointed out that in the recent Madarihat Assembly bypoll in Alipurduar — the seat turned vacant as Tigga resigned as the MLA after he got elected as the MP — the BJP lost the seat that it had been winning since 2016.
Many local TMC leaders believe Barla would help strengthen the TMC base in north Bengal’s tribal belts.
“The event to which he has been called is an official one and it is unlikely he will join the party there. Of course, the invitation is significant,” said a TMC leader.
A BJP leader said they were watching the developments.