NEW DELHI, May 12: In a curious development, two days before polling, the wife of a Trinamool Congress candidate joins the BJP.
The case was of Swastika Maheshwari, the wife of TMC candidate for the Ranaghat seat in West Bengal Mukut Mani Adhikari. Ms Maheshwari joined the BJP on Saturday at a rally in Ranaghat in the presence of the mega cine star and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty.
The catch, however, was that Ms Maheshwari is contesting a divorce suit against her husband. “Anyone voting for Mukut Mani Adhikari will be cheated exactly like me,” she said at the rally.
The development comes as a major embarrassment concerning Mukut Mani Adhikari, against whom Swastika Maheshwari filed a complaint just a few days after their marriage last year accusing him of cruelty against her.
Mukut Mani Adhikari’s nomination as Trinamool Congress candidate has been marred with controversy. He was elected as a BJP legislator in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections from the Ranaghat-Dakshin constituency, one of the seven under the Ranaghat Lok Sabha.
Earlier this year, he joined Trinamool Congress. However, his name was announced as a Trinamool Congress candidate from Ranaghat before he resigned as a BJP legislator. As the BJP started making an issue of it, he finally resigned from the state assembly as a member last month.
(Manas Dasgupta)
