Overview
- Three former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha members—Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Prakash Chik Baraik—formally joined the BJP in Kolkata on Thursday and were welcomed at the party's Salt Lake office.
- Hours after the induction the BJP's Central Election Committee approved the trio as the party's nominees for the Rajya Sabha bypolls that the Election Commission set for July 24.
- The bypolls are decided by state legislators using a single transferable vote and each candidate needs roughly 70 first-preference votes; the BJP's roughly 207 assembly seats let it distribute votes to secure all three seats.
- Winners will serve the remaining terms of the vacated seats—Roy and Baraik's terms run until September 2029 and Dev's until April 2030—so a BJP sweep would extend the party's Upper House presence for years.
- The move illustrates the BJP's tactical flexibility in accepting select former TMC leaders and deepens the damage to the TMC's unity, with party figures calling the defectors turncoats and analysts saying the shift may encourage further realignments.