A Trinamul leader of Malda with many police cases pending against him joined the BJP in presence of state unit chief Dilip Ghosh and the party’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya in Calcutta on Wednesday.

Sheikh Yasin, appointed a secretary of Malda district Trinamul in December last year, switched loyalties along with three zilla parishad members, four panchayat chiefs and 23 panchayat samiti members of the district, all from Mamata Banerjee’s party.

Yasin, a bahubali or strongman in Ratua area of Malda, was accused of rigging poll booths in the 2018 panchayat elections. Ballot boxes were looted at gunpoint, dumped on the roads and were set on fire in Ratua. The incidents allegedly orchestrated by Yasin drew flak from many quarters and made the state election commission order re-polling in over 50 booths of Malda district.

Parties in Opposition, including the BJP, had shrilly accused Yasin of looting votes.

Yasin’s spouse Payel Khatun is an elected member of zilla parishad. A couple of months back, Yasin hit the headlines when violence erupted in a flat in Calcutta owned by Payel and one person died in the incident. Again, BJP among all other Opposition parties had made the shrillest protest seeking police action against Yasin.

BJP leaders in Malda when asked about Yasin’s joining, reacted briefly. “Such activities would not be allowed in the BJP. Maybe he wants to change himself,” said Ajay Ganguly, a vice-president of BJP in Malda.

Trinamul’s reaction was mixed.

While district INTTUC president Manab Banerjee said “the party has been purged with voluntary departure of such a history-sheeter,” district Trinamul chairman Krishnendu Choudhury said “the party should look into the causes behind the departure of leaders and workers”.

Trinamul insiders revealed Yasin wanted the Ratua Assembly ticket and humiliated Samar Mukherjee, the sitting Trinamul MLA, many times. “It did not go well with the party leadership and they did not entertain his demand. This perhaps made him decide to join the BJP,” said a source.

Sources said that Yasin was initially close to the Left but after being refused a nomination in the 2013 panchayat polls, he contested as an Independent and win in the panchayat samito tier. Later, he joined Trinamul and was appointed as a district secretary of the party. “However, after some years, the state Trinamul leaders realised that he was developing a larger-than-life image (as a strongman). In fact, at a public meeting on March 4, 2020, chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked district leaders to rein in Yasin,” said a source.

Along with BJP, the Congress leadership also flagged Yasin’s alleged involvement in illegal activities. Recently, Mostaque Alam, a Congress MLA of the district, published a list of police cases pending against Yasin and demanded stern police action against him.