A day after resigning from his MLA post and giving up the TMC party membership, Rajib Banerjee will travel to Delhi on Saturday, where he is likely to meet Amit Shah and JP Nadda and join BJP.

Alongwith him, expelled TMC leaders Vaishali Dalmiya and Prabir Ghoshal, former Howrah Mayor Rathin Chakraborty and ex-Ranaghat Municipality chairman Parthasarathi Chattopadhyay will also travel to the national capital in a special flight arranged for them.

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All these rebel leaders were supposed to defect to the hindutva party at Shah’s presence in Howrah on Sunday. However, with the Union Home Minister postponing his trip to West Bengal, Banerjee and Co. will be changing camps in BJP’s central office in New Delhi.

Shah was set to arrive in Kolkata on Friday night on a two-day visit beginning on Saturday to take stock of the BJP’s preparedness ahead of the assembly elections in West Bengal.

He was also scheduled to address important rallies across the state, including the much-talked-about one at Matua bastion Thakurnagar about the implementation of CAA.

Thee actual reason for the deferment of his trip was not known. But it comes as farmers have intensified their protests against three farm laws amid incidents of clashes with “locals” at some places and also after a low-scale blast happened neat tje Israeli embassy in New Delhi.

Shah’s tour was planned in the backdrop of growing rebellion in the ruling TMC with several ministers and MLAs openly speaking out against the party and the functioning of the state government.

The rebel leaders were speculated to join the saffron party on Sunday in the presence of Shah at an event in Howrah’s Domjur on Sunday.

According to Zee 24 Ghanta, the event is likely to go ahead as planned with the BJP trying to substitute Shah with another heavyweight party leader. However, it’ll be an usual rally in Howrah now with the new BJP members.

Reportedly the hindutva party’s national president JP Nadda could visit Kolkata in place of his party’s defacto number two. Shah, meanwhile, could set his foot on Bengal on February 9.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi might also take a two-day tour of the poll-bound state for campaigning on February 7 and 8.