500 Congress workers, 22 leaders join Tripura Trinamool

Over 500 Congress workers and 22 local leaders joined the newly formed Tripura unit of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the party's chairman in the state, Ratan Chakraborty, said Sunday.

"Over 500 Congress workers led by 22 local leaders joined TMC today (Sunday). More top Congress leaders, members and supporters would soon join the party (TMC)," Chakraborty told reporters.

In the presence of the leaders and workers who joined the party from the Congress, Chakraborty said that the TMC would now be the key opposition party to oust the ruling Left Front from the helm of affairs in Tripura.

Currently, the Congress is the main opposition party in India's lone Left-ruled state.

The Congress leaders who Sunday joined the TMC included Sadar district president Tapan Datta and Pradesh Congress committee member Subrata Dey.

Chakraborty along with former Tripura Congress chief Surajit Datta and former opposition leader Jawar Saha, all former ministers, earlier this month joined the TMC, headed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Banerjee appointed Datta and Saha as the president and vice-chairman of the Tripura unit of the TMC.

The disgruntled leaders, who were against the elevation of the former Tripura chief minister and ex-state party chief Samir Ranjan Barman's son Sudip Roy Burman, first as Tripura Congress head and then as leader of opposition in the state assembly, claimed that the present leadership of the Congress helped the Left Front return to power in Tripura.