Siliguri, Nov. 7: Sabita Devi Agarwal, a Congress district committee member and former deputy mayor of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation, and over 30 leaders of her party's youth and students' wings today joined the BJP in Siliguri.
All the 30 Youth Congress and Chhatra Parishad members were portfolio holders and from the Darjeeling district Congress.
This is the biggest switch by former Congress leaders to any other party in north Bengal in recent times.
Political observers said the jolt to the Congress in the plains areas of Darjeeling district could be severe as all 30 post holders are from a single district and only from plains areas, not the hills.
A common complaint of the leaders was the despondency in the state Congress, though a party leader said the departures would not make any difference as none of the leaders had an individual following.
The Congress breakaway group joined the BJP at a public meeting in the presence of Sidharth Nath Singh, the BJP's Bengal minder, Rahul Sinha, the state BJP chief, and S.S. Ahluwalia, the Darjeeling BJP MP.
The Congress youth leaders were led by Abhijit Roy Choudhury, the Darjeeling Youth Congress president, and Amit Talukdar, the Darjeeling district president of the Chhatra Parishad.
'We were frustrated with the prolonged silence within the Congress on organising political activities. There was no reason for staying in the Congress as the central and state leaders hardly maintained any connections with us. It seems that the party has gone into a sort of hibernation,' Roy Choudhury said.
'Youths like us have fought Trinamul and the Left, but in the current political situation we felt that it can be only the BJP which can pose a challenge to the ruling party and the Left,' he said.
The other youths, who stood in queue with Roy Choudhury and Talukdar, said after their departure, Darjeeling district Congress would hardly have anybody left who is younger than 35 years.
'We have wholeheartedly organised and participated in programmes to strengthen Congress in the city and in the districts. The municipal and Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad polls could be announced any day now. Yet, there is no change in the lackadaisical attitude of our leaders,' one of them said. 'They seem to be least bothered about the civic and rural polls.'
The Congress's showing in the Lok Sabha election has been dismal in Darjeeling district - it was at the bottom of the vote share table in most civic wards and rural blocks.
But Jiban Majumdar, the general secretary of Darjeeling district Congress, said: 'Those who left (the party) today had a political identity. None of them has any strong footing and thus switched sides like opportunists. We don't need such people. Leaders of the party where they joined today will soon understand that these people do not have any support base.'
'The BJP has performed exceedingly well (in the Lok Sabha elections) in the SMC area... and was ahead of other parties in 21 of 47 wards. The Congress was reduced to fourth position. It is clear that if the trend persists, the vote will turn in the BJP's favour, particularly when senior leaders have clarified today that they are considering SMC as their first stepping stone in north Bengal,' a political observer said.
Senior BJP leaders today alleged that the Trinamul was harbouring terrorists and held the party and the Left Front responsible for turning Bengal into a 'safe haven for infiltrators'.
The BJP also saw a Trinamul face in its midst - Manik Arora, a general secretary of Darjeeling district Trinamul, who joined the party today.
