Sonali Guha, a four-time Trinamool Congress legislator and once considered as shadow companion of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is now BJP’s main bet to crack the ruling’s party strong organisational network at Diamond Harbour, the Lok Sabha constituency of party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Guha, also the former deputy speaker of West Bengal Assembly, was a four-time MLA from the Satgachia Assembly constituency, one of the seven Assembly seats under Diamond Harbour. As veteran MLA, she had been keenly involved with the organisational activities of the state’s ruling party in the entire Lok Sabha constituency, and BJP now wants to use her experience in creating fissures in the ruling fort in Diamond Harbour.
State BJP unit has given Guha the charge of BJP Mahila Morcha, the party’s women’s wing in Diamond Harbour. According to Guha, though she understands that she has been given a tough assignment, she has accepted it as a challenge.
A four-time MLA from Satgachia since 2001, Guha was denied a party ticket by Trinamool Congress leadership in 2021. Alleging that the denial of the ticket was due to conspiracy hatched against her by a reaction of district leadership close to Abhishek Banerjee, she joined the BJP just before the 2021 Assembly polls.
However, even the BJP did not offer her a ticket. Her plea to return to Trinamool Congress directly to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee then also did not receive a positive reply. Thereafter she took a virtual sabbatical from political activities.
However, during the last couple of months she started interacting with the BJP leadership again and has become vociferously vocal against Trinamool Congress on various issues of corruption. “Even if the chief minister calls me now, I will not go back to Trinamool Congress anymore. I do not want to be associated with a gang of thieves,” AGuha said.
Now, it is to be seen how Guha performs in her new assignments in the BJP.
According to the state president of the women’s wing of BJP in West Bengal, Falguni Patra, since Guha as a four-time MLA knows the entire South 24 Parganas district, the party would like to use her experience on this count.
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