A day after Trinamool Congress heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari resigned as an MLA, sources told India TV that he will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Adhikari will join the saffron party when Union minister Amit Shah visits the poll-bound state.
Sources said that Adhikari will join the party at Amit Shah's Medinipur rally. Shah is slated to visit the state for two days on December 19 and 20. Adhikari was slated to visit Delhi on Thursday to meet the BJP bigwigs and join the party, but his scheduled visit has been postponed now.
Sources said that TMC MP Sunil Kumar Mondal may also join the BJP along with Adhikari. He is a Lok Sabha MP from Bardhaman Purba.
Meanwhile, TMC MLA Jitendra Tiwari has also expressed his displeasure at the functioning of the party. He could also joined the BJP during Shah's visit.
READ MORE: TMC dissident Suvendu Adhikari resigns as MLA amid reports of him joining BJP
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Mukul Roy said that if Suvendu Adhikari joins his party, it will benefit, claiming that the Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards. Roy said that leaders are feeling choked and suffocated in the TMC.
Adhikari, Roy said, is a mass leader and must have taken his decision to give up his cabinet portfolios in the Mamata Banerjee government and resign as an MLA after serious thinking.
"If he joins, the BJP will benefit. The Trinamool Congress is collapsing like a house of cards," Roy said. "I welcome this decision of Adhikari," he added.
Adhikari on Wednesday tendered resignation as an MLA, weeks after he quit the Trinamool Congress government as a minister. He was TMC MLA from Nandigram assembly constituency. Adhikari had helped Mamata Banerjee in her anti-land acquisition movemnent against the Left Front government in Nandigram in 2009 that catapulted her to power in 2011.
READ MORE: 'Free to leave': Mamata warns TMC dissidents after Suvendu Adhikari's exit
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