North 24 Paragnas, 22 February (H.S.): Former footballer and Ex MLA Dipendu Biswas left the Bharatiya Janata Party and rejoined the Trinamool Congress. He formally returned home during a ceremony held at the Basirhat Organizational District Trinamool Congress office on Sunday. Basirhat South MLA Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay and District Trinamool Congress President Burhanul Muqaddim (Liton) were present on the occasion.
A total of 28 grassroots workers from the Congress, BJP, CPM, and ISF joined the Trinamool Congress along with Dipendu Biswas. However, the most talked-about aspect of Dipendu Biswas's return was due to his former Trinamool Congress MLA from the Basirhat South Assembly constituency.
Notably, Dipendu Biswas first contested the Basirhat South Assembly by-election in September 2014 on a Trinamool Congress ticket, but lost narrowly to BJP candidate Shamik Bhattacharya. Subsequently, Trinamool Congress nominated him again in the 2016 assembly elections, and this time, he defeated Shamik Bhattacharya to become an MLA for the first time.
Before the 2021 assembly elections, Trinamool Congress changed its candidate and gave the ticket to ophthalmologist Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay in place of Dipendu Biswas. Displeased with the denial of the ticket, Dipendu Biswas joined the BJP in the presence of then-BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. However, after Trinamool's landslide victory in the 2021 elections, he gradually distanced himself from the BJP.
Some time ago, Dipendu Biswas had appealed to the Trinamool leadership in writing to return to the party, but this was not accepted. However, he finally returned to Trinamool before the 2026 assembly elections. The district Trinamool leadership has not yet commented on whether he will be nominated for a candidate in the upcoming assembly elections.
On this occasion, MLA Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay said, The re-entry of former MLA and renowned footballer Dipendu Biswas into Trinamool has strengthened our party. We will all work together for the development of Basirhat.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey
