Mamata Banerjee said she would want to restructure her party ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls
Stung by Trinamool Congress leaders defecting to the BJP after the Lok Sabha Elections, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuuesday launched an attack on them by calling them "greedy and corrupt" even as another Trinamool lawmaker from Bongaon and 12 other councillors joined the BJP on Tuesday.
Saying that her party is "throwing out garbage" and the BJP is collecting it, the Trinamool chief said she would be replacing the "traitors" with "dedicated members". She also asked those "undecided about joining the BJP" to leave her party at the earliest.
On Tuesday, Trinamool lawmaker from Bongaon Biswajit Das, 12 other councillors and Congress spokesperson Prasanjeet Ghosh joined the BJP in presence of BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy even though Ms Banerjee said she wasn't "bothered" it.
"We are not bothered about a few corrupt and greedy leaders who are switching to some other party. They joined the BJP as they were afraid they might face consequences for their activities," the chief minister said earlier on Tuesday.
A Trinamool MLA and 12 other councillors joined the BJP on Tuesday.
After the BJP secured a whopping 18 seats in Bengal, a steep increase from two seats in 2014 polls, a huge contingency from the state's ruling party switched to the BJP last month. The exodus came weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised Ms Banerjee that 40 legislators from her party were in contact with the BJP and would soon change camp.
As more switches followed led by BJP leader Mukul Roy's son, the party expressed its displeasure and likened its MLAs who joined the BJP to "rats abandoning a ship sensing danger".
Mamata Banerjee said she would want to restructure her party ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.
"One person will leave and 500 more will be inducted in his or her place. We want to restructure our party and replace corrupt and greedy workers with dedicated cadres," she added.
In the Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamool Congress nosedived to 22 seats from 34 as the BJP successfully made in-roads in Bengal.