This is just first phase, says BJP as 2 TMC MLAs, over 50 councillors join party

In a major setback to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), two MLAs, including BJP leader Mukul Roy's son Subhrangshu, and over 50 councillors from West Bengal joined the BJP here on Tuesday.

An MLA from CPM also joined the party today.

Senior party leaders, including West Bengal party in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy, were present at the party headquarters for the occasion.

"Like the elections were held in seven phases in West Bengal, joinings in BJP will also happen in seven phases. Today was just the first phase," Vijayvargiya asserted.

Before the announcement, he had said that "such joinings will continue in future as well".

Earlier in the day Mukul Roy, once a confidant of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said that the people of West Bengal have made their minds to support the BJP.

Roy's son Subhrangshu, the MLA from Bijpur constituency, was suspended from the TMC for six years for anti-party activities.

The development comes days after BJP broke into the TMC citadel winning 18 seats, 16 seats more than it bagged in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. TMC bagged 22 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Congress managed to win just two seats, while the Left parties drew a blank.