Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Friday claimed that two BJP MLAs from West Midnapore district had approached him with the intention of joining the ruling party, though he said he refused to entertain them.
Addressing a public meeting in Midnapore, Banerjee said, “I won’t take names. How many BJP MLAs are there from this district? Two. Both wanted to come to Trinamool. But respecting the sentiments of the people here, I have kept the doors shut.”
He added that Ajit Maity, Trinamool’s West Midnapore district president and Pingla MLA, had once accompanied BJP legislator Hiranmay Chattopadhyay, popularly known as Hiran, to his office. “I did not allow him inside,” Banerjee said.
The BJP currently has two MLAs from West Midnapore—Hiran, the actor-politician representing Kharagpur, and Sital Kapat, the Ghatal MLA. Without naming them directly, Banerjee launched a sharp attack on Kapat, saying residents of the region were well aware of his past. “People who have lived here for the last 40 years know the kind of atrocities Sital Kapat has committed. Trinamool’s doors are permanently closed to such individuals,” he said.
Banerjee’s remarks did not clarify whether the alleged overtures from the BJP legislators were recent or linked to political realignments ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
Hiran, like several film personalities in Kolkata, had earlier maintained proximity to the Trinamool leadership and attended party events without formally joining. Three years ago, he denied meeting Abhishek Banerjee at the Trinamool leader’s Camac Street office. Later, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Hiran acknowledged meeting Banerjee but said it was done with the permission of Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, firmly denying any plan to defect.
Meanwhile, Banerjee also sharpened his political offensive against Suvendu Adhikari, announcing that the Trinamool’s flagship Sebashray health camps would be organised in Nandigram every year, directly challenging the BJP leader on his home turf.
“Sebashray will be held in Nandigram every year—not just next year, but every year,” Banerjee said after visiting camps across the two blocks of the constituency. “This time we have two model camps. In the future, all 17 regions will be covered. If anyone thinks they have the power to stop it, let them try.”
Though smaller in scale than the Sebashray programme in Banerjee’s Diamond Harbour parliamentary constituency, the Nandigram camps—running till January 30—remain a high-cost initiative and signal an intensifying political contest in Adhikari’s bastion.
