Two more defectors want to return to Trinamool Congress

Sarala Murmu and Amal Acharya want to leave the BJP and rejoin West Bengal’s ruling party

A day after four-time MLA Sonali Guha, who had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), wrote to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, urging that she be allowed to return to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) two other former Trinamool leaders, Sarala Murmu and Amal Acharya, have also expressed their wish to leave the BJP and rejoin the State’s ruling party. Interestingly, Sarala Murmu was given a ticket by the TMC to contest from the Habibpur Assembly seat in Malba, but she turned down the offer and joined BJP. “Didi (Ms. Banerjee) has given a message to all those who left the party out of anger or hurt that they can return to her party. I am responding to that call. If she accepts us back then, most certainly, we will stay with Didi and work with Didi,” Ms. Murmu told journalists on Sunday. The other leader who has made a similar appeal is former two-time MLA Amal Acharjee, who had also quit and joined the BJP just two weeks before the elections after being denied a ticket by TMC. “I joined the BJP and worked for them for a few days out of anger and frustration after being denied a ticket; it was not out of any ideological shift,” Mr. Acharjee said. The former MLA from Itahar in Uttar Dinajpur has also written to the senior party leadership urging that he be allowed to rejoin the party.