John Barla, who was formerly a member of Narendra Modi's council of ministers, left the BJP and joined the Trinamul Congress on Thursday, lauding chief minister Mamata Banerjee and tearing into Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition.
Barla had won from the Alipurduars Lok Sabha seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes in 2019 and was a minister of state for minority affairs from 2021 to 2024. The Adivasi leader had been displeased with the BJP after being denied a ticket to contest again from Alipurduars last year.
“My heartfelt gratitude to chief minister Mamata Banerjee for giving me a chance to work for our people…. Yes, discussions have been on for a few months. I spoke to Didi directly, who asked me to work for the people…. In the BJP, I was unable to work for the people, so I didn’t see the point in continuing there,” said Barla, deemed influential in the north Bengal tea belt.
While still in the BJP, he had attended a Mamata-led public meeting of the state government in January.
“I always faced roadblocks when I wanted to work for the people as the Union minister. The people had blessed me to work for them, but the party leaders themselves stopped me from doing so,” he said. “The BJP is anti-development. It does not wish Bengal well… it does not wish tribal people well.”
Barla said he was keen on getting a hospital built by the railways at an investment of ₹160 crore in his constituency, but accused the BJP’s Adhikari of throwing a spanner in the project.
“The leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, blocked it. All work was done, and the land was identified. We just had to sign the MoU. But a call went from here to the Union ministry, and the work was stopped,” said the 49-year-old, after being welcomed to Trinamool by its state president Subrata Bakshi, state vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar, and minister Aroop Biswas at a Trinamool Bhavan event in the afternoon.
“If development work is stopped by a party, who can work like this? Why should I be part of a party that stops work for the people?” he asked. “Tea garden workers had blessed the BJP, but what did they get in return?”
Bakshi said the TMC was happy to welcome Barla, and was hopeful that with his experience and grassroots connection, especially in Alipurduar and among tea garden workers, he would play a meaningful role in strengthening Trinamool there.
Barla, who hails from the Lakhipara tea estate in Banarhat block of Jalpaiguri, had earlier been associated with the CPM’s youth wing.
He came into political prominence in 2007 when he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad and led a movement of Adivasis against the demand to include the Dooars in the Gorkhaland state that the people of the Darjeeling hills have been pressing for. Later, as he joined hands with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, Barla was expelled from the Parishad. However, by that time, he was a popular face in the Dooars
In 2014, he joined the BJP.
Last year, as the BJP chose Manoj Tigga over him as the Alipurduars candidate, Barla turned defiant and openly criticised Tigga and several state leaders. He eventually turned inactive and abstained from the BJP’s programmes.
At the induction programme on Thursday, Barla went on to thank Mamata profusely for her contribution to the uplift of the four lakh workers in the north Bengal tea gardens.
“She has done so much for the tea gardens with schemes like Cha Sundari. Getting pattas was a longstanding demand of the region since the Adivasi Andolan of 2007. We have finally got it. This is big to all Adivasis,” said Barla.
“There are eight lakh tea garden workers in double-engine Assam. Despite this, the double-engine government has not given an inch of land there. I want to thank Didi. Even if it is five decimals, we at least got the land in the tea garden,” he added.
Barla said Mamata, unlike the BJP-led Assam government, gave appropriate status to the tribal communities.
“How will I have faith that if there is a double-engine government in Bengal, they will work for us? Didi, on the other hand, has done so much for us, from Duare Sarkar to Lakshmir Bhandar…. So many tea garden workers are benefiting from these things,” he said.
“In the coming days, I will surely talk to Didi about the other issues of the tea gardens. I will speak to her and we will work it out,” he added.
The BJP’s chief spokesperson for Bengal, Samik Bhattacharya, alleged Barla had been trying to sabotage the party’s electoral battles in the region since being dropped as a candidate in the general election last summer.
“Everyone is aware of his ways,” he said.
Dismissing Barla’s allegations, Adhikari accused him of parroting lines from a script handed to the joinee by Trinamool.
“He had been constantly in touch with both Trinamool and me for a year…. It is not my responsibility to respond to allegations levelled by a political character such as him,” said the Nandigram MLA.
Additional reporting by our Jalpaiguri correspondent