Weeks ahead of Silchar's first Municipal Corporation election, the Trinamool Congress has suffered a major organisational setback in Assam's Cachar district, with its district president and 49 other leaders and workers switching over to the BJP on Sunday.
Fifty leaders make the switch
Among those who left the TMC were district president Rajesh Deb and senior leader Mohan Lal Das, along with 48 other party functionaries and workers, taking the total number of defectors to 50. The mass exit strips the TMC of a significant chunk of its Cachar unit just as the district heads into a closely watched civic contest.
BJP formally inducts the new entrants
Assam BJP president Dilip Saikia welcomed the group into the party at the BJP's Cachar district office, formally inducting them into the organisation. Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev also attended the induction programme, lending her presence to the event held at the party's local headquarters.
Saikia described the induction as an expansion of the BJP's organisational family in the region and said the new entrants would help the party strengthen its network across Cachar. He added that BJP workers would now work collectively for the development of the Barak Valley region, Assam and the country as a whole.
Sushmita Dev's own crossover set the stage
Saikia also pointed to Sushmita Dev's election to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, saying that despite her parliamentary role in Bengal, her political activity would continue to stay closely tied to Assam and to the development of the Barak Valley. Dev herself had switched from the TMC to the BJP in June, a move that had already been read as a significant shift in the Barak Valley's political landscape. Sunday's mass defection follows directly from that earlier crossover, suggesting the TMC's troubles in the region did not end with her exit.
A boost for BJP, a blow for TMC before October 3
The timing of the defections is significant. Silchar is set to hold its first-ever Municipal Corporation election on October 3, and the induction of 50 TMC leaders and workers is expected to give the BJP's organisational machinery a considerable boost as it works to widen its grassroots presence in the city ahead of the vote.
For the TMC, the loss of its Cachar district president along with dozens of senior functionaries represents a fresh organisational challenge. The party now faces the task of rebuilding its local leadership structure at short notice, a task made harder by the approaching civic poll, and the exits are likely to complicate its efforts to maintain a credible political and electoral presence in Silchar.
