Opposition parties accuse TMC of poaching MLAs

Ahead of election to five Rajya Sabha seats in West Bengal tomorrow, the opposition today accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of trying to poach their MLAs in a desperate measure to win the fifth seat after a Congress member said he would join the TMC and vote for it.
CPI(M) politburo member and Leader of the Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra said that three Left MLAs Sunil Mondal of Forward Bloc, Dasarath Tirkey and Atanu Deb Adhikari of RSP could not be contacted.
"We have been trying to get in touch with them, but have failed to establish any contact," Mishra said.

CPI(M) leader Rabin Deb accused the TMC of trying to make LF MLAs to vote for its candidates in tomorrow's elections with the help of the police administration.
Denying the allegation, TMC all India General Secretary Mukul Roy said that some MLAs from the opposition wanted to support the TMC "to defeat the unholy nexus of Congress and CPI(M). We are confident that we will win the four seats where we have put up candidates."
Meanwhile, TMC received a boost with Congress MLA Abu Naser Khan Chowdhury from Malda saying that he would join the ruling party tomorrow and vote for the party candidate.