Tripura has shown the way by doing what Bengal could not do in more than 10 years. A BJP legislator from Surama, who had defected from the party to the Trinamul some months back, was expelled under the anti-defection law.

This comes two days before Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee gets to decide on the fate of Mukul Roy, the first BJP MLA to defect to the Trinamul after the Assembly poll results. A former railway minister, Roy is also chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Bengal Assembly, a post normally headed by an Oppositon leader.

In a letter to the Tripura Assembly Speaker Ratan Chakraborty, the BJP legislature party had complained that Ashis Das had joined the Trinamul at a public rally in Calcutta. Das had, in fact, tonsured his head at Kalighat temple as penance for joining the BJP.

“I had served him multiple notices to appear for a hearing. Neither did he give any reply nor did he attend the hearing. That is why he has been expelled,” said Speaker Chakraborty.

Das could not be reached for comment.

Since Mamata’s first term in 2011, nearly 50 MLAs from the Congress and Left parties defected to the Trinamul but continued as legislators as no action was taken against them under the anti-defection law.

The BJP, being the only Opposition party in the Assembly, has moved Calcutta High Court, seeking expulsion of the defectors under the anti-defection law. Five other MLAs belonging to the BJP have joined the Trinamul since Roy’s defection in June last year.

Leader of the Opposition in Bengal Suvendu Adhikary had warned BJP legislators mulling a switch-over to the Trinamul to resign from their respective seats or else face legal proceedings. Speaker Biman Banerjee has moved Supreme Court, which had set a time-frame of three months for cases of defection to be decided.