Who is Chandan Mitra? Former BJP MP joins TMC at Mega Kolkata rally

This comes days after Mitra resigned from BJP on 17 July. Soon after his resignation, it was speculated that Mitra would join the TMC.

Chandan Mitra, the former Rajya Sabha member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday. (PTI)

New Delhi: Chandan Mitra, the former Rajya Sabha member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the annual mega rally in Kolkata. This comes days after Mitra resigned from BJP on 17 July. Soon after his resignation, it was speculated that Mitra would join the TMC. As per the report, the reason behind Mitra's resignation was believed to have been unhappy with the functioning of the BJP party. The former Rajya Sabha MP made his displeasure evident on a number of occasions like with the way the party dealt with the issues such as increasing the MSP, mob lynching cases, women’s safety in the country and Kairana bypoll defeat. Several other new faces joined TMC today, but none bigger than two-time Rajya Sabha lawmaker and former BJP leader Chandan Mitra. Besides, Mitra, the Congress MLAs Samar Mukherjee, Abu Taher, Sabina Yasmin and Akhruzzman also joined the TMC today. All of them joined the TMC at its annual Martyrs' Day rally.  

Former Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra, Former CPM MP Moinul Hasan, Congress's Sabina Yasmin and Mizoram advocate-general Biswajit Deb have joined TMC: TMC Chief & West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (File pic) pic.twitter.com/OUYaRXWqcr

— ANI (@ANI) July 21, 2018

Who is Chandan Mitra

• Chandan Mitra is one of the bigger names to distance itself with the BJP party. • Mitra began his career as a journalist at The Statesman. • He is currently the editor of The Pioneer newspaper in Delhi. • Mitra was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from August 2003 to 2009. • He was nominated to the Upper House when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre. • In June 2010, BJP got him elected to the upper house from Madhya Pradesh. His term ended in 2016. • Mitra also contested the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2016 but lost. • He was fielded as the party's candidate from Hooghly in West Bengal in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and came a distant third. • He was considered close to veteran BJP leader L K Advani. • However, his political stock within the party plunged under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, and he was left with little organisational responsibility. (With inputs from PTI)