Former Maoist operative files nomination on Trinamool ticket

Former Maoist operative Kameshwar Baitha, who joined the Trinamool Congress after the BJP rejected his membership request, today filed his nomination papers to contest from the Palamau seat for the April 10 Lok Sabha elections.
Baitha, who won the 2009 Lok Sabha elections on a JMM ticket, filed the papers days after joining the Trinamool Congress.
On March 5, Baitha said he had met BJP leader and former chief minister Arjun Munda and gave him a letter requesting to join the BJP, but the party reportedly rejected the request.
It is not known whether Baitha has resigned from his LS membership after defecting to the Trinamool Congress.

Baitha, who lost the 2007 bypoll from Palamau LS seat on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket, won it two years later contesting from the Sasaram Jail.
He was lodged in the jail in connection with 55 Naxal-related cases.