Two Trinamul MLAs, including a minister of state, joined the BJP on Wednesday.

Bachhu Hansda, the MLA of Tapan in South Dinajpur and the minister of state for the north Bengal development department, switched to the saffron camp after his former party did not provide him with a ticket for the Assembly polls.

Gauri Shankar Dutta, the sitting Trinamul MLA of Tehatta and the former chief of Trinamul in Nadia district, also joined the BJP. He was also denied a ticket.

Hansda, sources said, was aggrieved with Trinamul. On Tuesday, Trinamul leader and MP Arpita Ghosh had met him and tried to placate him. “He, however, remained unperturbed, quit the party and joined the BJP,” said a party insider.

Along with Hansda and Dutta, a hoard of dissident Trinamul leaders — most of them from Nadia and Howrah districts — joined the BJP in the BJP office in Calcutta.

Some of these leaders had held administrative positions at different local bodies in the two districts.

Another actor from the Bengali film industry Bonny Sengupta and filmmaker Rajib also joined the BJP on Wednesday.

Sengupta’s mother Piya Sengupta and partner Koushani Mukherjee had recently joined Trinamul.

Koushani has also been named as the Trinamul candidate for Krishnanagar North.

The joining process of ex-Trinamul leaders and workers continued for over 20 minutes. Old and new BJP leaders couldn’t remember any other instance where the event took so long other than in December when Trinamul leader and state minister Suvendu Adhikari had joined the saffron brigade.

Members of the workers union of a Calcutta-based club and a glass factory also took the BJP flag from state party chief Dilip Ghosh, which several old timers said was below Ghosh’s dignity.

“Is this some kind of a joke? A joining event for 21 minutes has never happened inside the party office,” an angry BJP leader said.

“And who are these people? Apart from a couple of MLAs and a few others, most of them are nobodies. Why should the party’s state president be bothered for their joining?” the leader added.

In a second news conference, Adhikari inducted a few leaders from East Midnapore into BJP.

In Siliguri, Shankar Ghosh, a CPM leader and a member of the board of administrators of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation, severed all ties with the CPM.

Ghosh has submitted his resignation from primary membership of the party, he said.

“I had been associated with the CPM for the past 30 years. But I have been cornered in the party for the past three-four years and my voice was suppressed for some unknown reason. Considering the situation, I felt it is better to quit rather than facing humiliation,” Ghosh, who was also a member of CPM’s Darjeeling district secretariat, said on Wednesday.

Ghosh, one of the popular faces of the CPM in Siliguri, was elected as a councillor for the first time in 2015. He was made a member, mayor-in-council and was considered over the close associates of Siliguri MLA and senior party leader Asok Bhattacharya.

“I also stepped down from the post of the member of BoA of the civic body on Tuesday. So far, I have not decided anything about joining some other party. I will make a decision in another couple of days,” he added.

Sources in the CPM said his decision had come as a shocker for the party. Even Bhattacharya and the party’s district secretary Jibesh Sarkar had been to his house but could not make him change his mind, said sources.

On Wednesday evening, however, senior CPM leaders tried to put a brave face.

“It will have hardly any effect on the party…. his (Ghosh) political aspiration has forced him to take such a decision,” Bhattacharya said.

BJP fields Hiran

The Bengal BJP on Wednesday nominated actor Hiran Chatterjee alias Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay from the Kharagpur (Sadar) Assembly seat.

In 2016, Dilip Ghosh won his first Assembly polls from this seat but in the bypoll of 2019, after Ghosh was elected as an MP, this seat was wrested by Trinamul candidate Pradip Sarkar.

“Our young workers in Kharagpur wanted a young leader. Hence, Hiran has been fielded from that seat. His candidature will encourage the workers,” Ghosh said.

Also, Supriti Chatterjee has been named as the BJP candidate from Barjora, on Wednesday.