BJP MLA from North Bengal joins Trinamool

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MLA from North Bengal’s Kurseong, Bishnu Prasad Sharma, joined the ruling Trinamool Congress on Thursday (February 19, 2026) ahead of the scheduled Assembly elections.

Mr. Sharma, who had been publicly critical of the BJP for quite some time now, wields considerable influence in the Gorkhaland region. He joined the Trinamool in the presence of State Ministers Shashi Panja and Bratya Basu, both senior party leaders, at the party headquarters. 

“Disillusioned by BJP’s jono-birodhi [anti-people] and Bangla-birodhi [anti-Bengal] stance, he has chosen to stand firmly beside Smt. @MamataOfficial and work in the service of the people of Bengal,” the Trinamool posted on X.

Mr. Basu, the State’s Education Minister, said Mr. Sharma joined the Trinamool out of his free will. Ms. Panja, the State’s Women and Child Development Minister, called the party’s new recruit a “fellow warrior”.

“The party I was with for the past five years never sent money to the State government, but even then, the development work never stopped here. The chaotic politics that is going on in the country, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is the only one challenging it,” Mr. Sharma said.

He said the BJP spoke about the Gorkhaland issue in their last election manifesto but did not offer anything to the people in the past five years. “Trusting the BJP, we have not been able to develop Darjeeling or fulfil our promises to the people. That is why the fight Didi (Mamata Banerjee) is fighting for the people, I wanted to be part of that,” he said. 

The rift between Mr. Sharma and the BJP became prominent when he fought, and lost, the 2024 Lok Sabha election as an Independent candidate against the BJP’s Raju Bista from the Darjeeling constituency. 

“From the end of 2023, he started to isolate himself from the party. He fought against BJP candidate Raju Bista in the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and got only 7,000 votes. If someone gets 7,000 votes in a Lok Sabha seat which includes three Assembly seats, that shows a lot about his public presence,” Shankar Ghosh, the BJP’s chief whip in the Assembly, told The Hindu. 

He said the BJP is not bothered by Mr. Sharma’s switch to the Trinamool, adding that the party will win the Kurseong seat by a massive margin in the upcoming election. 

In the 2021 Assembly election, Mr. Sharma defeated Tshering Lama Dahal of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Tamang) by 15,515 votes.