Two BJP parliamentarians who won their seats in the just-concluded Bengal Assembly polls are likely to continue as MPs and will resign from the legislative Assembly, the move leading to byelections in the constituencies within six months.

Nisith Pramanik, the Cooch Behar MP, and Jagannath Sarkar, the MP from Ranaghat, won Assembly seats of Dinhata and Santipur respectively.

“The official announcement is a matter of time. The central leadership is keen that the two continue as MPs,” said a BJP source, adding that the decision had been conveyed to the two Pramanik and Sarkar who are yet to take their oath.

In this year's Assembly elections, the BJP had fielded four Lok Sabha MPs in all, the other two being Locket Chatterjee and Babul Supriyo. Both Chatterjee and Supriyo lost, too, and will, therefore, continue as MPs. A fifth nominee, Swapan Dasgupta who was a member of the Rajya Sabha, had resigned before filing his nomination from the Tarakeswar seat. Dasgupta lost the Assembly polls.

In BJP’s scheme of things, losing two Assembly seats will not make any difference to the party’s status in the Assembly. However, when the next Lok Sabha polls are held, the saffron camp would like to go ahead with all the 19 Lok Sabha seats it has in its kitty. Those defecting from Trinamul will be a gain for the party.

While Sarkar had a handsome lead of 15, 878 votes over his nearest rival from the Trinamul Ajoy De, Pramanik managed to wrest the seat from Udayan Guha by a mere 57 votes.

Udayan, son of the late Forward Bloc leader Kamal Guha, had switched over to the Trinamul Congress in 2016 soon after the Assembly elections. Five days back, he came under attack from BJP supporters in Dinhata, while on the way to meet victims of post-poll violence. Pramanik too is a former Trinamul member who joined the saffron wing before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“#BJP fielded 4 sitting LS MPs, incl a Union Min & 1 RS MP for #BengalPolls. 3 lost. 2 won. Now these 2 to quit as MLAs. They were elected last week! World’s largest (sic) party have set a world record for electoral egg on face. One Nation One Election! What say Narendra, Amit,” tweeted Trinamul’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien on Tuesday.

While O’Brien has reasons to gloat over the BJP’s failure to come even close to form a government in Bengal, the ruling party itself is dithering over a decision concerning the powerful Adhikary family of East Midnapore.

Trinamul’s East Midnapore district unit has recommended action against Dibyendu Adhikary, the party’s Tamluk MP and younger brother of Bengal’s newest leader of the Opposition from the BJP, Suvendu.

Local Trinamul leaders had complained that Dibyendu did not work for the party in the recently concluded Assembly polls. The BJP had nominated Suvendu from Nandigram where he defeated chief minister Mamata Banerjee by 1,956 votes.

Suvendu and his second brother Soumendu had joined the BJP in December 2020, while his father and Contai MP Sisir and Dibyendu remained in the Trinamul. In the run-up to the Assembly polls, Mamata and the Adhikarys had hurled invectives at each other, with the exception of Dibyendu, who hasn’t said a word against Mamata.

On the other hand, Sisir, who is yet to quit Trinamul, had shared the dais with Union home minister Amit Shah during the poll campaign.

Most Trinamul leaders believe it is a matter of time before the entire Adhikary clan joins the BJP. With Suvendu’s elevation to the chair of leader of Opposition, the East Midnapore district will occupy central stage in Bengal’s politics over the next five years.

“If he is expelled from the party, he will remain an MP for the rest of the term and can do as he pleases. The party leadership would want to avoid that situation,” said a Trinamul source.