It all started with the price of jute and ended with “gharwapsi“ for Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh. The “Bahubali” leader joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before 2019 and his “gharwapsi“ to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday.

Arjun’s main vote bank was Barrackpore jute mill workers. However, as the maximum price of jute was capped at Rs 6,500 per quintal, artificial demand was generated, and supply stumbled, which led to the closure of 14 jute mills.

After the 2021 Assembly Election Polls, sources said that Singh had slowly started to realise that nothing was happening in BJP. Moreover, he was unable to do justice to his constituency as the jute price was capped. The BJP base there during 2019, ceased to exist.

According to experts, jute was the favourite road through which he tried to come back. The price issue really was pinching Singh and so were the organisational issues in the BJP.

Singh started off by writing to Textile Minister Piyush Goyal, following which he met him. Subsequently, sources said he was in talks with TMC too. His strategy was to pressurise BJP and remove the price cap of jute and secure his vote bank.

On the other hand, after securing his vote bank and taking the credit for it, his shift would reap benefits from both sides.

Sources said that BJP persuaded him in every way. The price cap from jute was also removed to retain him. Still, the BJP could not hold him back. Singh had got the feeling that he would not be able to win representing BJP.

Dilip Ghosh Vice President of BJP said, “Lot of importance has been given to him. We don’t have numbers otherwise BJP would have given CM post, now he knows what he has done.”

With this latest exit, experts believe that BJP should now think about how to keep its flocks together.

(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)

First Published:May 22, 2022 4:53 PM IST