3 TMC turncoat MLAs have expressed wish to return, say sources; party leadership says they can't be taken back, asserts 'traitors can't be trusted'

Kolkata: Three TMC MLAs who had switched over to the BJP after the Lok Sabha polls this year are in touch with the Mamata Banerjee-led party and have expressed their wish to return to the party fold, TMC sources said.However, Trinamool Congress leadership claimed that none of the turncoats would be taken back to the party as "traitors" cannot be trusted. According to the TMC sources, within months of joining the saffron party, three TMC MLAs of North 24 Parganas have been trying to get in touch with the party top brass and have expressed their desire to return to the parent party.[caption id="attachment_5089251" align="alignleft" width="380"]

File image of Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption]"Three MLAs from the district who had switched over have been sending feelers to party leaders. The party high command will take a call," a senior leader of TMC's North 24 Parganas said on condition of anonymity. Senior minister and president of North 24 Parganas TMC unit, Jyotipriyo Mullick said the party would never take them back."I have heard that some of them are trying to get in touch with us. None of us has tried to get in touch with them and my suggestion would be they should not even dare to contact me. Let me make one thing very clear we would never take back traitors. We don't need weathercocks and traitors in our party. However final call regarding it would be taken by our party supremo Mamata Banerjee," Mullick said.The Bharatiya Janata Party has made deep inroads in West Bengal in the Lok Sabha polls by winning 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, just four less than the TMC. Since the Lok Sabha poll results, eight TMC MLAs, besides one each from the Congress and the CPI(M), have joined the BJP with the saffron party wooing rival party leaders to bolster its strength ahead of the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls.When enquired about the development, a senior BJP leader said these are rumours deliberately being spread by the TMC but noted that it would hardly effect party's prospects if turncoats return to their parent party."We don't know whether it is true or false. There are chances that the TMC is trying to spread those rumours to create a panic. But even if it is true it would hardly affect our future," the BJP leader said.Since the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has taken effective control of seven municipal bodies, with a majority of the councillors of the civic bodies joining the saffron party. However, in the last two months, all the municipal bodies have returned to TMC's control.