Kolkata:Asian Games gold medal winning athlete Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, also a former CPI(M) MP, joined the BJP as former athletic was now inspired with the Narendra Modi's Savka Saath Savka Vikash polity.
51-year-old Sikdar took the opportunity of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally with the people of West Bengal today as took the saffron flag by the hands of state president Dilip Ghosh here.
Former middle distance runner in mid 90s won many laurels for India, including the 1998 Asian Athletics Championships and gold medals in both the events in the Asian Games in Bangkok in 1998, turned politician in 2004 and won a parliament seat from Krishnanagar on Marxist ticket CPI( M). Then she defeated BJP candidate and Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Satyabrata Mukherjee.
Sikdar was a close aide of former Sports minister Subhas Chakraborty. She had taken part in CPI(M)'s campaign in the 2016 Assembly election. However, in the next Parliamentary poll in 2009 she lost to then green horn and Tollywood star late Tapas Pal.
After her defeat she went into political wilderness and resurfaced again when she joined the ruling Trinamool Congress in May 2019. Then she said she was attracted by the all-round development carried out in Bengal by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.But her meeting with state BJP president Dilip Ghosh at her home last weekend and offering her a pink-colored lotus, mean she was waiting for the go.(UNI)