The South Dinajpur district president of the Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress, Biplab Mandal, joined hands with the Congress at the Balurghat Congress Bhaban here on Tuesday.
Mr Mandal also filed his nomination as a Zilla Parisad candidate from the No-6 Kumarganj seat, sources said. The development is being considered significant as both the parties have seen such a switch in the past 24 hours in the district.
It may be mentioned here that Congress MLA from Gangarampur, Gautam Das, wore the Trinamul Congress cap on Monday. The district Congress leaders have claimed that more than 50 running Pradhans and members in the district are waiting to join the Congress and that they will be filing their nominations by Saturday.
Mr Mandal, who worked as the TMC trade union leader backed by the INTTUC in South Dinajpur district, was one of the closest leaders of the TMC district president Biplab Mitra, and he was with the Trinamul trade union since 2011, it is learnt.
According to political observers, Mr Mandal may have left his party and went to the Congress following a controversy over the post of the district president of the INTTUC for the past one year.
“Mr Mandal has mass support in the Kumarganj Block and since the past few years, he had been working for the INTTUC and the Trinamul Congress. He even played an important role in the previous State Assembly elections. Mandal will be playing a big role in Kumarganj,” a political observer in South Dinajpur said.
“I want to work for the common people, but there is no scope to work for the people in the TMC. I was confused about my post for the past one year. I have now decided to join the Congress and my followers will support me,” Mr Mandal said.
According to the district President of the Trinamul congress, Mr Mitra, Mr Mandal was inactive since the past few months and his party had received a number of allegations against him.
“We tried controlling him, but failed. Mr Mandal’s membership with the Congress will have no affect on the TMC,” he said. The district President of the Congress, Nilanjan Roy, meanwhile, claimed that the move was “only a trailer before the real show began.”
“Within next Saturday, we will run the full movie. The score has become 1-1 on Tuesday and before Saturday, the Congress will be scoring another 10 goals,” he claimed. “A good number of TMC leaders are waiting to join the National Congress as they know that they will be rightly honoured only in the National Congress,” Mr Roy added.