The year 2021 started on a bad note for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as 15 Trinamool Congress councillors, including Suvendu Adhikari's brother Soumendu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday (January 1).
Soumendu and other councillors of Contai Municipality joined the saffron party in the presence of Suvendu Adhikari, Mamata's former close aide who himself joined the BJP last month.
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The Mamata government had recently removed Soumendu from the administrator's post at the civic body. The move was decribed as 'vindictive' by Suvendu.
"Soumendu has a long political career ahead of him. He has worked hard all these years and the same goes for the other councillors. The Adhikari family is no longer with the party of Pishi-Bhaipo (TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and nephew Abhisek Banerjee)," Suvendu said.
ALSO READ: Made right decision to join BJP, have people's approval, says Suvendu Adhikari
The former state minister also said that the Mamata Banerjee government had been delaying municipal polls, as it was scared of its "imminent defeat".
"People will vote in favour of the BJP, be it the civic polls or the assembly elections. The BJP will be the frontrunner in Contai South and other places where it had been trailing in the last Lok Sabha polls," he asserted.
Earlier in the day, Soumendu had told reporters that his family had been enduring many unsavoury attacks. "But we believe in giving a befitting reply on the battlefield," he said.
(With Inputs from PTI)
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