TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari likely to join BJP this week in Shah's presence

Kolkata, Dec 15: Ending months of suspense, Trinamool Congress (TMC) heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during Union home minister Amit Shah's visit to the poll-bound state later this week.

Reportedly, dhikari is expected to travel to Delhi before joining the paty and is also be given security by the Union home ministry in the wake of Nadda convoy attack.

Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that added to the political heft of Mamata Banerjee and catapulted her to power, resigned from her cabinet last month, setting off speculation that he may quit the ruling TMC ahead of the state assembly polls next year.

He was said to be unhappy over organisational changes in the Trinamool Congress and the growing clout of Kishor and Abhishek, the nephew of the chief minister, in the decision making process of the state government.

The BJP central leadership is in touch with disgruntled TMC mass leader Suvendu Adhikari, since his resignation, but nothing has been decided as of now regarding his joining the saffron party.

Although Adhikari has resigned from the Mamata Banerjee cabinet in which he was the minister in charge of transport, waterways and irrigation, he has not resigned from TMC or as MLA.

Adhikari's resignation is seen as a prelude to his severing of his two-decade-old association with TMC right from its inception in 1998.

Apart from his home district of East Midnapore, Adhikari has influence over at least 40-45 assembly segments in tribal Jangalmahal area comprising the districts of West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram and parts of Birbhum and minority-dominated Murshidabad districts.

This assumes significance as polls in the state, where BJP has made deep inroads, is due in April-May 2021 and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will seek to return to power for the third consecutive term.