Samik Bhattacharya welcomed Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Prakash Chik Baraik by presenting them with BJP flags during a programme attended by senior State leaders at the party’s Salt Lake office. Photo credit: X/ANI
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday (July 9, 2026) nominated three former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Prakash Chik Baraik to the Upper House of Parliament, hours after the three former MPs joined the BJP in Kolkata.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya had earlier in the day welcomed the three former MPs by handing over a BJP flag to them at the party office. After the defeat of the Trinamool Congress in the West Bengal Assembly polls, the three Rajya Sabha MPs who were nominated by party chairperson Mamata Banerjee had resigned from Parliament.
Ms. Dev, Mr. Ray and Mr. Baraik joined the BJP days before the July 24 bypolls to three Rajya Sabha seats in the State.
Moment of happiness: BJP
“The three former MPs have taken a stand and resigned from Rajya Sabha. It is a moment of happiness for us. We accept the three of them wholeheartedly,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.
With the BJP having 208 legislators in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly, and the Trinamool Congress MLAs divided into two camps, their election to the Upper House is just a matter of time.
Ms. Dev, a prominent leader from Assam, who left the Congress to join the Trinamool Congress in 2021, said that the BJP was a national party and it the party’s high command would decide on whether she would be nominated again to Rajya Sabha or not. Mr. Ray, a three-term Rajya Sabha MP and former party chief whip who was one of Mamata Banerjee’s key parliamentary faces, resigned from the Rajya Sabha and as a member of the party after Trinamool lost power in West Bengal.
Mr. Ray had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the latter’s recent visit to Kolkata. Mr. Baraik, who hails from Alipurduar, was nominated by Trinamool Congress to the Rajya Sabha in 2023.
Just after securing victory in the Assembly polls, Mr. Bhattacharya had said that several Trinamool leaders want to join the BJP, but that “the doors of the party are closed for them”. “There will be no Trinamoolisation of the BJP,” the State BJP president had said.
The latest development comes at a time when 20 Lok Sabha MPs of Trinamool Congress have defected from the party and joined the little-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI). Among the Trinamool MLAs elected to the Assembly recently, a majority of them have joined ranks with the rebel faction and parted ways with Mamata Banerjee.
Published – July 09, 2026 06:33 pm IST
