TMC lawmaker, 12 councillors join BJP

Kolkata, June 18: In another blow to the Trinamool Congress, Trinamool lawmaker Biswajit Das, 12 other councillors and Congress spokesperson Prasanjeet Ghosh joined the BJP in presence of BJP leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy.

This comes a day after another TMC MLA - Noapara legislator Sunil Singh, along with the 15 TMC councillors and another Congress councilor, had joined the BJP.

Singh is the MLA from Nowpara of North 24 Parganas and brother-in-law of BJP's Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh, who had himself switched sides from the TMC ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Sunil Singh is also the chairperson of TMC-run Garulia municipality.

North 24 Parganas is at the centre of this mass exodus from TMC because all rebels are from the district. Once a TMC bastion, the district is slowly witnessing a saffron surge.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamool Congress nosedived to 22 seats from 34 as the BJP successfully made in-roads in Bengal.