Two MLAs who had left the Trinamul Congress and joined the BJP caused ripples in Bengal’s power corridors on Monday as word on their meeting with Mamata Banerjee got out, fuelling speculation about the possibility of their ghar-wapsi (homecoming) and later claims by the BJP that the duo were firmly in the party.

Noapara MLA Sunil Singh and Bongaon North legislator Biswajit Das met the chief minister twice on Monday.

Several political observers said the development indicated that the infamous Aaya Ram Gaya Ram phenomenon had arrived in Bengal with the BJP’s desperation to grow inorganically in the state.

“It is true Trinamul started the trend of getting legislators from other parties since it came to power in Bengal in 2011. But there is little doubt that with the BJP’s aggressive poaching strategy, the phenomenon that was alien to Bengal politics is now very much part of it,” said an observer.

On Monday, the final day of the 16th Assembly of poll-bound Bengal, Singh and Das met Mamata, first in the corridors of the Assembly.

While Singh greeted her, Das touched her feet. Mamata was overheard asking Das: “Ki rey, decision nili (Hello there, were you able to decide yet)?”

About a half-an-hour later, the two MLAs entered the chief minister’s chamber in the Assembly, where a 20-minute closed-door meeting took place in the presence of senior ministers Firhad Hakim and Jyotipriya Mullick, and Naihati MLA Partha Bhowmick.

Sunil Singh File picture

While Hakim was placed in charge of engineering a slew of ghar-wapsis in North 24-Parganas since the second half of 2019, Mullick has been the district chief of the party for years. Bhowmick is one of the co-coordinator of Trinamul in the district.

Since the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, the ruling party has been working hard to regain ground lost to the BJP in North 24-Parganas, which has 33 Assembly seats, the highest in Bengal. In the Assembly elections of 2016, Trinamul had won 27 of them, and the BJP had won none. But in the general election, the BJP secured leads in 21 of those Assembly segments and since then, it engineered a slew of defections in the district.

After the meeting, Trinamul kept mum on the developments. But a source close to the chief minister said “very interesting” events were to be expected in North 24-Parganas over the next few days.

MLAs Singh and Das faced a volley of questions from journalists in the Assembly. The Noapara MLA declined comment, flashed the victory sign with his fingers and left.

The Bongaon North MLA said he had spoken to Mamata regarding some stalled development activities and the local area development fund he was entitled to as a lawmaker. He insisted that his touching her feet was not out of the ordinary, as she is a senior leader.

Asked about Mamata’s question regarding his “decision”, Das said: “I never heard that.”

Shortly after, Barrackpore BJP MP Arjun Singh, the Noapara MLA’s brother-in-law, said he couldn’t explain the reason for the meeting and if Sunil Singh returned to Trinamul, their current party would take “appropriate action”.

Sources in the BJP said alarm bells started ringing in the saffron camp after the two turncoats had met the chief minister. “We have plans to engineer more defections from Trinamul.If some people return to Trinamul, that would surely be a blow to us,” said a source.

Shankudeb Panda, another Trinamul turncoat who is now a vice-president of the BJP’s state youth wing, called up the duo and urged them to visit the party office. Panda made the intervention at the behest of BJP’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya.

Das met Mukul Roy, yet another Trinamul turncoat from North 24-Parganas who is now a national vice-president of the BJP, in the party’s Hastings office.

Noapara MLA Singh also arrived later. Visibly upset, when journalists tried to speak to him, Singh declined comment. Both the MLAs were asked to join a felicitation ceremony for Rajib Banerjee, a former member of Mamata’s cabinet now in the BJP. The duo were also felicitated.

BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh claimed both the MLAs had informed the party ahead of meeting Mamata and there was nothing wrong in the meeting.

Later, Vijayvargiya spoke to the duo separately amid murmurs that Das had been unhappy with the “upper hand” his new party had given to Bongaon MP Santanu Thakur. The factors responsible for the Noapara MLA’s purported discontent remained unclear.

“One thing is for certain. Das and Singh wanted word on the meeting with the chief minister to get out in order to extract some leverage in the BJP. That reached the BJP bosses who addressed their concerns. The two MLAs are part of the BJP,” said an insider.