After much speculation, Barrackpore BJP MP and strongman Arjun Singh is back to the Trinamool Congress after three years. He joined the party in the presence of AITC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other prominent leaders from South 24 Parganas, Jyotipriyo Mullick and Partha Bhowmik.
Before the joining, Singh visited the Taj Bengal hotel where he stayed for four hours before he visited Banerjee's office around 4 pm and had a long discussion with Banerjee and other senior leaders before the joining was officially confirmed.
This switch takes BJP's count of MPs in Bengal to 16 from 18, and TMC's to 24. Previously, Babul Supriyo had switched over to the TMC too.
Arjun Singh’s ghar wapsi to the TMC might be met with severe criticism because of his alleged communal past but might ultimately end up helping the party. After all, he is a force to reckon with.
Singh, who had switched over to the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had been dropping hints of going back to the TMC for a while now – first by supporting CM Mamata Banerjee over the issue of jute mills, and then singing along the tune of most disgruntled BJP workers claiming that organisational chaos is leading to the party’s demise in the state.
"The BJP must turn around the party. The organisation must fix it. Those who understand the organisation should be given responsibility. They should be given some power. The party has given us a chair, but it doesn’t have legs. The party has given us a pen, but it doesn’t have ink."Arjun Singh to ANI
Both Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP National President JP Nadda failed to stop his departure. The Centre even lifted the cap on the price of raw jute.
Singh's switching over to the BJP in 2019 was a 'nasty blow' to the TMC, just like it is for the BJP now – and it is the series of events during this period which give us a good idea about Singh’s political clout.
The Source of Arjun Singh's Power
The Barrackpore MP is a strongman in Bengal politics. He was a strongman during his first stint at the TMC and became even stronger while he was in the BJP.
His greatest strength came from his loyal cadre, who have often compared him to a messiah. Barrackpore has several jute mills and other factories which Singh has influence over. He has often fought for the cause of the workers. Through this, he has a say in the businesses that happen in the area, which also means that many of the workers are at his mercy.
With muscle power, Singh also commands a significant amount of wealth, as seen from his lavish lifestyle. He supplies raw material to several construction projects.
Singh was always seen as a pro-Hindutva politician, but his saffron hue became more predominant after he switched over to the BJP. Then he started to command the Hindu electorate in Barrackpore. Playing hardline Hindutva slogans in loudspeakers and chants of Jai Shree Ram became a common thing in the area, and Singh was the Hindutva poster boy.
Singh is also a accused of having a history of violence – both political and communal. He has been accused of being involved in the violence that followed the 2018 Gram Panchayat elections, and the violence in Bhatpara’s Kankinara post the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Locals, when speaking to The Quint, were scared to even take his name, because they feared that his supporters would burn their houses again.
The 2019 violence in Bhatpara which started off as a fight between the BJP and TMC, where the BJP supporters were mainly Arjun Singh’s cadre, escalated into a full-blown communal riot, leaving eight people dead and several still living in fear. This incident led to even more Hindu votes consolidating under Singh.
Electoral Dominance
Singh’s power had a significant impact on the elections too, and a fair amount of credit must be given to him for BJP’s performance in Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The four-time MLA from Bhatpara had made Barrackpore TMC’s citadel until he switched over. The fall of this citadel bears witness to his true power and consequently the rise of BJP in Bengal.
Six of seven Assembly seats in the Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency: Amdanga, Bijpur, Naihati, Bhatpara, Jagaddal, Noapara, and Barrackpur AC, were won by the TMC in the 2016 Assembly elections.
After Singh switched over to the BJP, he handed his Bhatpara Assembly seat to his son Pawan Singh, who won on a BJP ticket. What followed was a series of defections of the MLAs from said seats to the BJP namely Shilbhadra Datta (Barrackpore), Sunil Singh (Noapara), and Shubhranshu Roy (Bijpur).
BJP won four out of the seven seats with ex-Trinamool leaders, only to prove that Singh’s cadre had shifted allegiance to the saffron party.
However, in the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP won only one (Bhatpara) out of the seven seats.
The BJP also took control of the Bhatpara municipality making it the first civic body to be governed by the BJP in Bengal. But the TMC managed to regain control in due time.
But Singh’s influence is not restricted to Barrackpore. He wields significant influence in Hooghly and Dumdum too.
Singh’s induction into the TMC will indicate the party solidifying its base in the Barrackpore region again which was slowly becoming a BJP stronghold, while also running the risk of alienating minority votes in the area. Until now, the minority votes were loyally behind the TMC.
However, the induction of Babul Supriyo and Arjun Singh does beg the question whether TMC is also going after BJP’s Hindu votes.
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