Like me, Dev also cross-voted in 2022 Presidential elections, says Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh

Kolkata, March 11 (IANS) Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh, who has turned into a rebel on not being nominated by the Trinamool Congress for the forthcoming LS polls, on Monday claimed that actor-turned-politician and fellow party MP from Ghatal constituency Deepak Adhikari aka Dev had also cross-voted in the 2022 Presidential polls.

Trinamool Congress’s erstwhile national Vice President Yashwant Sinha was the opposition alliance’s candidate in the presidential polls against NDA’s Droupadi Murmu

Arjun Singh, who was elected as a BJP candidate from Barrackpore in the 2019 Lok Saha polls but returned to Trinamool in 2022 before the Presidential polls, admitted that despite being in the Trinamool, he, like Dev, voted in favour of her.

“At that time of the Presidential polls, I was with the Trinamool Congress. But I voted for President Murmu, who comes from a tribal background. But I was not the only one to do that. Dev also voted for Murmu,” he said.

There was no reaction from Dev on the claim.

Since Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee announced the candidates of Trinamool Congress for the Lok Sabha elections on Sunday, with Singh’s name missing from the list, the latter turned rebellious and expressed his strong objection to the decision.

He even went to the extent of saying that he would not have returned to the Trinamool had he known earlier that he would be denied nomination from Barrackpore.

Arjun Singh claimed that when he rejoined the Trinamool in 2022, he was promised the nomination from Barrackpore. “But before the elections, I was told that the party was considering me from a different Lok Sabha constituency, which I was not willing to accept. The decision of the party is quite shocking to me. Had I been told before, I would not have joined the party,” he said.

–IANS

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