Judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court has announced that he will be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. He gave a tentative date of March 7 when he will be joining the BJP.
He attacked the ruling Trinamool saying it was imploding with corruption, while complimenting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he described as a “very hardworking man,” in an interview with reporters in Kolkata.
Justice Gangopadhyay, who made headlines last year, after an interview in which he discussed a case he was hearing, is expected to be fielded by the BJP in the general election.

There is speculation he could contest the Tamluk seat, which has been a bastion of the ruling Trinamool Congress in recent elections; the party has held it since the 2009 election.

The seat was held by Suvendu Adhikari (between 2009 and 2016, when he quit), who was widely seen as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s right-hand man till his incendiary switch to the BJP.

Judge Gangopadhyay announced his resignation to reporters earlier today, saying, “I’m going to give a courtesy calll to the Chief Justice. I’ve already emailed the President my resignation.”

In addition, he said that although he had intended to hold a press conference, “it skipped my mind that prohibitory orders (which forbid large gatherings) are in place.” He had said, “So I will host it at my house.”

Justice Gangopadhyay, who made his decision to resign public on Sunday, had responded to Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh’s invitation to enter politics by saying, “I like him as a person, even though he has said a lot of things against me as a political spokesperson.”

Justice Gangopadhyay has regularly made news for his decisions on a variety of subjects. For instance, he charged Justice Soumen Sen of being a political party employee earlier this year after the bench he led overturned an order directing the CBI to investigate irregularities at a college. The case is still pending in the Supreme Court.