Anxiety among party workers as former Trinamool leaders nominated to upper house: BJP veteran Tathagata Roy

In this picture taken on Oct. 5, 2026, Bengali actress Koel Mallick is presented with a BJP scarf as she joins a party in Kolkata, West Bengal. Photo: Flyer via PTI Photo

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran and former Governor of Tripura Tathágata Roy said there is considerable anxiety among party workers over the party’s nomination of former Trinamool Congress leaders to the Upper House. Mr. Roy’s remarks came after the BJP announced the candidature of former Trinamool Congress MP Rukmini Mallick alias Koel Mallick to the Rajya Sabha.

“There is considerable agony among the BJP workers in West Bengal who suffered terribly at the hands of Trinamool goons during their rule. It would be very unwise for the BJP central leadership to ignore this agony,” Mr Roy wrote on social media. A BJP leader said that Sukhendu Shekhar Ray, Koel Mallick, Prakash Chik Baraik and Susmita Dev, who “were Trinamoolis until yesterday, were sent to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP in preference to long-serving BJP workers”.

While emphasizing that he was retired and remained in the United States, the former West Bengal BJP president “said this as a Swayamsevak and BJP worker who has worked for the Sangh and the party for over 35 years against very considerable odds”.

A day after the BJP announced the candidature of former Trinamool Congress MP Rukmini Mallick alias Koel Mallick to the Rajya Sabha, the actor-turned-politician formally joined the party’s saffron fold on Monday.

Ms. Mallick was handed over the party flag at the Salt Lake office by state general secretary Shashi Agnihotri. Hours after she joined the BJP, she filed her nomination papers in the upper house of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in the presence of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and the BJP state president.

Ms Mallick was elected to the Upper House by the Trinamool Congress in April this year. On 16 July 2026, the actress-turned-politician tendered her resignation to Vice President and Speaker of the Upper House CP Radhakrishnan. She is the fourth Trinamool Congress MP to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP after she resigned from the upper house.

A new definition of Trinamoolization BJP

The concerns expressed by BJP leader Tathgata Roy were in line with what several party insiders described as the “Trinamoolisation of the BJP”, that the party was pandering to those who blamed the BJP before the party came to power in West Bemgal.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya, while reiterating that there will be no “Trinamoolisation of the BJP”, tried to give a different definition of the phenomenon, saying it meant how the government and not the party functioned. “We can’t say everything publicly, but for us party is above individuals and country is above party,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.

In the last five years, the BJP has nominated only two of its party veterans, Samik Bhattacharya and Rahul Sinha, to the Rajya Sabha, while four former Trinamool Congress MPs have made it to the upper house. In 2023, the party nominated Nagendra Roy alias Anant Maharaj as a Rajya Sabha MP who had recently courted controversy by making derogatory remarks against Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Mamata AITC spokesperson and MLA Kunal Ghosh said that while Mamata Banerjee was the chief minister of the state, people like Koel Mallick supported her. Mr. Ghosh said that Mamata Banerjee even nominated Koel Mallick’s father Ranjit Mallick to be Sheriff of Calcutta, but the Mallick family exposed themselves to the studio people. Elections for 12 Rajya Sabha seats are scheduled for October 16.

Published – 6 Oct 2026 03:56 IST