Moyna (East Midnapore): A key BJP neta in Moyna, Chandan Mondal, defected to Trinamool on Friday and immediately took aim at MLA Ashok Dinda, calling him an outsider. Mondal’s wife is a panchayat pradhan.With Mondal criticising the MLA saying, “He (Dinda) has done little to give Moyna respite from its flood woes”, the “old versus new” fight in BJP’s East Midnapore ranks has been reignited. Like leader of the opposition in Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari, Dinda joined BJP ahead of the 2021 polls. Consequently, once considered a frontrunner for the Moyna assembly seat, Mondal was ignored. In the polls, former India cricketer Dinda toppled TMC, which had been holding the seat for two terms, by 1,206 votes.“The MLA doesn’t even recognise local faces. I was the one managing his entire organisation,” Mondal told media outlets as he accepted the Trinamool flag from state finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh. “Moyna is a low-lying zone facing floods every year. Issues like bad roads and a lack of freshwater have not been addressed in the past five years. Women in some pockets did not benefit from Lakshmir Bhandar. I intervened to help many of them get their dues,” Mondal said.Reacting to the defection, Dinda said, “Mondal was fielded by BJP in the 2023 Zilla Parishad elections. He lost by 3,000 votes. One who cannot win a panchayat poll is now dreaming of a Trinamool ticket. He has nothing to do with Moyna. He is not an MP, an MLA… he’s not even a panchayat member. He is nothing. I hope TMC gives him a ticket.”Bhattacharya welcomed Mondal to the party, calling him a son of the soil. Ghosh hinted at more defections from the Adhikari bastion of East Midnapore, saying, “This is merely the trailer.”
