Kalyani, Dec. 14: Former Trinamul Congress MP Sucharu Ranjan Halder and former inspector-general of police Basab Talukdar joined the BJP in Nadia’s Kalyani today.

Halder, a physician by profession, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Ranaghat (SC) constituency in the 2009 elections.

He and Talukdar were handed over party flags and inducted into the BJP at a programme chaired by the party’s Nadia president Kalyan Nandi.

According to Trinamul insiders, Halder was unhappy with the district Trinamul leadership as he was denied a ticket to the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat this year.

Today, he described the ruling party as an organisation of extortionists and frauds.

Speaking to reporters after joining the BJP, Halder said: “I was feeling suffocated in the Trinamul Congress. It had turned into a party of extortionists and frauds.”

“I joined the Trinamul Congress after Mamata Banerjee requested me to do so in 2009. I responded to her call as I felt that the misrule of the CPM should come to an end in Bengal. But after removing the CPM, I found that the party I was fighting for had changed,” Halder added.

Talukder, who retired as IG (telecommunication) in October this year, said: “I have joined the BJP as the present government in Bengal has no respect for the law.”

Asked about Haldar’s decision to join the BJP, Nadia Trinamul president Gourisankar Dutta said: “Halder has lost his importance in the party. So he switched over to the BJP. He has no support base here. He is not even capable of winning a panchayat election in his own. Our party will in no way suffer because of him.”