In a blow to CPI(M) and Congress in West Bengal, 12 members of a municipal board, including one each from BJP and RSP, today joined Trinamool Congress, pushing the Left out of power from the 21-member board.
TMC, which had no member in Jangipur Municipal board, is now in the driver's seat with 12 members, while CPI(M) has been reduced to six and Congress is left with just two. SUCI(C) has one member in the board.
State minister Zakir Hossain, who is the MLA of Jangipur in Murshidabad district, said the 12 members joined TMC as they wanted to work for development of the state under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The 12 who defected to TMC included municipality chairman Mojaharul Islam of CPI(M). Of the remaining 11, five were from CPI(M), four from Congress and one each from RSP and BJP.
Three members of Murshidabad Zilla Parishad also joined TMC, Hossain said, adding two are from CPI(M) and one from Congress.
Meanwhile, state Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury claimed that the members were forced to defect by Trinamool.
Jangipur town is in the home district of Chowdhury.
Echoing him, senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, "It is the muscle power of TMC that made these leaders switch sides. The incident is a bad omen for the state.
