The transition was seamless. Rukmini Mallick, known to audiences as Koel Mallick, walked into the office of the Assembly’s principal secretary at Vidhan Sabha Bhavan on Monday morning to file her nomination papers. She did not go alone. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya stood beside her. This happened just hours after she accepted the saffron flag at the party’s Salt Lake headquarters amid chants of 'Vande Mataram.'
The manuver mirrors a pattern established by three former Trinamool leaders—Sukhendy Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Deb, and Prakash Chik Baraik. They resigned from the Upper House, crossed over to the BJP, and won unopposed. Mallick had followed a similar exit strategy earlier, resigning from her Trinamool Rajya Sabha seat between April 6 and July 16 following the assembly election defeat.
"I congratulate and offer best wishes to her in advance," Adhikari declared on social media. He presented her with a framed photograph of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at the assembly office. Senior ministers Tapas Roy and Sankar Ghosh also witnessed the filing. Mallick, daughter of veteran actor Ranjit Mallick, framed her return to the Upper House as a duty to serve rather than a political rebellion.
"It is easy to read a newspaper and say, 'Oh, this was not done', but the real thing is to come to the field and work on those issues," Mallick told reporters. She cited a lack of work opportunities as the root cause of social media bitterness in Bengal. When pressed on why she severed ties with TMC, she remained diplomatic, citing her psychology background and empathy for others. The BJP holds a clear majority in the West Bengal Assembly, making her unopposed victory on October 16 a formality.