The list of leaders leaving Congress party is growing. Now, the grand old party lost its lone representative in West Bengal. On May 29, the only Congress MLA from West Bengal Assembly, Bayron Biswas, joined Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Biswas represents the minority-dominated Sagardighi constituency in Murshidabad district. As per the media reports, it was speculated that he is planning to leave Congress. He was inducted into the party by TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in the Ghatal area in Paschim Medinipur district. Biswas was inducted into the party according to the ongoing mass outreach campaign of TMC – Trinamool eh Nabojowaar.
The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) tweeted, “Today, during the ongoing #JonoSanjogYatra in the presence of Shri @abhishekaitc, INC MLA from Sagardighi Bayron Biswas joined us. We wholeheartedly welcome him to the Trinamool Congress family! To strengthen your resolve to fight against the divisive and discriminatory politics of the BJP, you have chosen the right platform. Together, we will win!”.
The by-elections for the Sagardighi seat were held on February 27, and the results were made public on March 2. The Congress contested elections in alliance with other parties, including the Left. Notably, the Congress was unable to win any seats in the Legislative Assembly in 2021. Regardless, they were able to acquire representation in the Assembly thanks to Biswas.
However, Bayron Biswas’s choice to change parties has once more altered West Bengal’s political landscape. Currently, only two MPs from Congress, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, are representing West Bengal in Lok Sabha. Throughout the political history of West Bengal, Congress came to power twice, 1947–1962 and 1972–1977.
One of the main reasons for the decline of Congress was the exodus of leaders who later formed or joined different political parties, such as Mamata Banerjee, who left the party in 1988. The effect of having no member in the state assembly can influence Congress’s depreciating performance in West Bengal.
This is not the first time any Congress leader left the party. On April 8, former Congress leader and the great-grandson of C Rajagopalachari, CR Kesavan, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He resigned from Congress in February. He said, “I want to thank you for inducting me into the world’s largest political party-BJP, especially on a day when our PM is in Tamil Nadu,” after joining the BJP.
On April 7, former Congress leader and last Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh N Kiran Kumar Reddy joined the BJP in the presence of Union Minister Prahlad Joshi, General Secretary Arun Singh and MP K Laxman at BJP headquarters.
On March 13, N Kiran Kumar Reddy sent his resignation to Congress’ national president Mallikarjun Kharge writing, “Please accept this letter as my resignation from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress”.
On April 6, in another setback to Congress, former Defence minister AK Antony’s son Anil Antony joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi. The development comes months after Anil Antony, who was a Kerala Congress Social Media Team Coordinator and resigned from all posts of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee in January following the row over BBC’s documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On August 2022, Jaiveer Shergill resigned from his position as the former national spokesperson for Congress and from the party. He presented his resignation to Congress’s then-acting President, Sonia Gandhi, claiming that the decision-makers were no longer in touch with the youth’s expectations. He joined the BJP on December 22, 2022.
On August 26, 2022, former Congress veteran and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Ghulam Nabi Azad also resigned from the party. He wrote, “The Indian National Congress has lost both the will and the ability under the tutelage of the coterie that runs the AICC to fight for what is right for India” in his resignation letter.
