More than 550 join TMC including two heavyweight Oppn leaders

Kolkata: More than 550 people, including Shankar Narayan Singh Deo and Chanchal Maitra joined, Trinamool Congress in different parts of the state including Kolkata.

Two heavyweight opposition leaders - Shankar Narayan Singh Deo and Chanchal Maitra – joined Trinamool Congress in Purulia on Sunday in the presence of the party's district chairman Shantiram Mahato, president Gurupada Tudu and district coordinator Sujoy Banerjee.

Shankar Narayan Singh Deo belongs to the royal family and he started off his political career with Congress where he was the block president between 2008 and 2011. He joined BJP in 2018 and became the Convenor of Joypur Block.

Chanchal Maitra was the sitting Congress block president of Joypur in Purulia. He was also the district president of Youth Congress and also a zila parishad member.

At Rashbehari in south Kolkata, around 40 leaders from BJP and CPI(M) joined Trinamool Congress on Sunday. They joined at the party offices at Rashbehari where senior party leader and the state Power Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay handed over party's flag to them.

Around 400 joined Trinamool Congress at Sabang in West Midnapore while the remaining 100 took up the party's flag at Baduria in North 24-Parganas on Saturday.

At Sabang, Trinamool Congress district president Ajit Maity handed over party flags to the 400 people who joined the party leaving BJP. They mainly decided to join the party to be a part of the development work undertaken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Trinamool Congress MP Manas Bhuniya and his wife MLA Gita Bhuniya were also present at the programme where they joined the party. The joining of such a large number of people has further strengthened the party in the district.

According to Trinamool Congress leaders, they have left BJP after witnessing internal feud among its leaders. They have realised that it will be of no use to continue to be in BJP and joined Trinamool Congress. At the same time, more than 100 BJP workers and leaders including gram panchayat members joined Trinamool Congress. Some Congress workers too joined the party at Baduria.

Trinamool Congress leader Narayan Goswami handed over the party flag to around 100 workers.

It may be mentioned that recently at least four lakh youths in Bengal registered themselves under the 'Youth In Politics' (YIP) programme. Youths who have registered themselves in Bengal have expressed their willingness to their journey in electoral politics with Trinamool Congress (TMC).