NEW DELHI: Old TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday he joined the BJP in the presence of Union Interior Minister Amit Shah at a rally in west bengalMidnapore. His formal incorporation into the saffron party has ended weeks of speculation about his political future.
Adhikari, who has disagreed with the West Bengal Prime Minister Mamata banerjee for the past few weeks, I had come out the Trinamool Congress on Thursday and resigned as the party’s MLA earlier this week.
In addition to Adhikari, several other TMC leaders defected to the BJP at the gigantic rally.
Two-time TMC deputy from the Bardhaman Purba Lok Sabha constituency Sunil Mondal, who has expressed his differences with the party leadership, was included in the BJP.
Meanwhile, the TMC MLAs who switched to the BJP are Banasri Maity, Silbhdrada Dutta, Biswajit Kundu, Sukra Munda and Saikat Panja.
Mocking Mamata for the barrage of defections, Amit Shah said that by the time next year’s elections roll around, TMC’s supreme will be left alone in the party.
A handful of board members from other parties also changed their allegiance to the saffron field.
MLA Dipali Biswas, who won the Gajole seat in 2016 with a CPM ticket but joined TMC in 2018, was also included in the BJP. She has not resigned as a CPM MLA.
CPM MLA Tapasi Mandal from Haldia, CPI MLA Ashok Dinda from Tamluk and Congress MLA from Purulia Sudip Mukherjee also joined the BJP at the rally.
Former TMC MP Dasarth Tirkey also joined the BJP.
Several district leaders of the TMC, the left, and Congress, including former Minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, also switched sides and joined the BJP.
Earlier today, Adhikari wrote an open letter to TMC members and harshly criticized the ruling party, saying that TMC is fraught with extremely deep unrest and rot.
Trinamool has already lost its minority cell general secretary, Kabirul Islam, and the president of the Midnapore municipality, Pranab Basu.
(With PTI inputs)
On video: Former TMC leader Suvendu Adhikari joins BJP
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