Kolkata, Mar 15 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday responded to the news of two sitting MPs joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with skepticism and mockery.

Senior TMC leader Santanu Sen said Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh had always been known as a BJP parliamentarian, while Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari had openly supported the BJP after his brother, Suvendu, joined the party.

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The two MPs from West Bengal joined the BJP in New Delhi, saying that they were upset with the Sandeshkhali incidents.

They joined the BJP at its headquarters here in the presence of party national general secretary Dushyant Gautam and West Bengal co-in-charge Amit Malviya, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

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Singh, who had earlier joined the BJP in 2019 after quitting the TMC and defeated the then-TMC candidate from the Barrackpore seat, had returned to the TMC again in 2022 even as he remained a BJP MP on Parliament record.

Dibyendu Adhikari won Tamluk in 2019, and in December 2020, his brother Suvendu Adhikari joined the BJP.

Sen questioned how the BJP could claim to have gained anything when these leaders were already associated with the party in some capacity. He argued that it was not a significant development for the BJP to welcome back its own members.

"It cannot be said two TMC leaders have joined BJP today. How come the BJP claim to have weaned away Arjun Singh from our party when he had always been known as a MP of their party," Sen said.

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh criticised the BJP's stance against dynasty politics, highlighting the irony of a member of the Adhikari family joining the BJP despite their rhetoric.

Ghosh dismissed the BJP's claims, stating that such actions only served to undermine their credibility.

"They are talking about pariwaar-vaad and a member of Adhikari family has officially joined their party. Modi guarantee has zero warranty," Ghosh said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)