Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah made headlines last week after he visited a tribal family in Siliguri’s Naxalbari in West Bengal. Images of Shah sitting on the floor having lunch on a banana leaf at Raju Mahali’s house in South Katiajote village were the highlight of his visit to the state where the saffron party is looking to make a serious dent to the ruling Trinamool Congress that Mamata Banerjee heads.
In a strange and rather embarrassing turn of events, less than a week after the Mahali family hosted the BJP president, Raju and his wife were seen holding the Trinamool flag and joined the state’s ruling party. Raju, a painter by profession, and his wife Geeta said that they were happy to join the TMC.
“We will work to strengthen the party in Naxalbari,” Raju, with tears in his eyes, said.
The BJP, however, has alleged a conspiracy in the entire development.
It is said that members of the family had gone missing on Tuesday night and resurfaced the next morning along with local Trinamool Congress leader Gautam Deb.
Speaking to reporters, Deb said that the family was willing to join the TMC. However, BJP alleged that the TMC had threatened the family and forced Raju and his wife to join the party.
“Mahalis have willingly joined TMC today. There was no pressure on them. They have decided to join TMC after being convinced with Mamata Banerjee’s immense developmental work in the state. They will soon be given responsibility to work for TMC,” Deb said.
According to local BJP workers, the family was under pressure from the TMC ever since Shah had lunch at their house on April 25.
“On Tuesday night we got information that Raju, a painter, and his wife Geeta, a farm labour, and others went missing from their house. We immediately rushed to the Naxalbari police station and alerted the officer,” BJP leader Dilip Barui said.
BJP’s Siliguri district president Praveen Agarwal accused Deb of kidnapping Raju and his family members.
“Mahalis were kidnapped by Gautam Deb’s men. Mahalis are under pressure to join the TMC. BJP workers are there in Naxalbari police station and we are demanding immediate action against those who are involved in the incident,” Agarwal said.
During his stay in Bengal, Shah had attacked CM Mamata Banerjee and asked party's leaders to reach out to the masses and fight for poo people rights.
Shah had said the people had become ‘disillusioned’ with the state's ruling Trinamool Congress, while the opposition Congress and CPI-M have ‘significantly lost’ their political relevance.
In West Bengal, the BJP had bagged three seats in the 2016 Assembly elections as against just one which it had won in the 2011. In 2011, BJP had garnered about 4 per cent votes which increased to 10.2 per cent vote share in 2016.
