Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is all set to induct former Rajya Sabha MP from BJP Chandan Mitra in a public event on July 21 in Kolkata, according to top TMC sources. Mitra resigning from the ruling party. Sources say that sacked CPM leader Ritabrata Banerjee may also be inducted in TMC on the same day.

Dr Mitra refused to comment stating he will talk only after Monday. A senior leader from TMC who also has been a minister under UPA2 told MyNation requesting anonymity, “Yes, the talks with Mitra are at a very advanced stage, although the final decision will only be taken by Didi.

Sources within BJP say, problem started ever since Mitra demanded Rajya Sabha again. Party reasoned with him with a Lok Sabha in 2019. But he was adamant on a Rajya Sabha. When the party put its foot down, Mitra started exploring other political avenues.

Ritabrata Banerjee too refused to divulge anything. “I am not going to talk on the issue with the media,” he said. The proximity between Ritabrata and TMC was getting noticed for some time. Ever since he was sacked from his former party CPIM, his anti-Left tweets would be regularly retweeted by Derek O’Brien. The biggest endorsement came from Mamata herself when Ritabrata was made the head of the Tribal Welfare Department of Bengal, a body that comes directly under the state government.

On other hand, there was no such overt bonhomie between Mitra and the TMC leadership. So, what set the balls rolling?

According to another TMC MP who spoke to MyNation on condition of anonymity, “Ritabrata was smart to choose TMC over BJP despite having the option to join the latter. But Mitra was keen to be associated with us. The TMC leadership, who have been negotiating with him, told me that he expressed discomfiture in present scheme of things in the BJP where he was clearly a misfit. Mitra thinks that within the party, he is being suspected as someone close to Advani.”

Will he join on July 21? “That’s what I am told,” said the MP.

July 21 is a red-letter day in Bengal. The CM holds an annual Martyrs’ Day to commemorate the 1993 Kolkata firing in which 13 people died while demanding photo voter identity cards be made mandatory to ensure fair elections.  Every year she uses it to make a political point by poaching people from other parties. How could this year be any different?

But if the two indeed join the TMC that day, how would Mitra’s vicious diatribe against Mamata over the years and Ritabrata’s untying the dhoti of Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra at Delhi’s Yojna Bhawan in 2013 be explained?

Time will tell.