CPI-M's Bengal lawmaker joins Trinamool

In a jolt to West Bengal's opposition CPI-M, its legislator Nabin Chandra Bag on Thursday crossed over to the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Bag, who won from Khandaghosh constituency in Burdwan district, said he took the decision to switch his political loyalties to join the "massive development programmes" initiated by chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee.

The Marxist legislator went to the Trinamool state headquarters and joined the party in the presence of its secretary general Partha Chatterjee, who welcomed him.

Later on Thursday evening, the Communist Party of India-Marxist summarily expelled Bag and alleged that "a huge some of money" had shaped his decision to join the Trinamool.