The BJP has seen a recent surge in support in the North East, after winning elections in Assam and forming governments in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur
Six TMC MLAs from Tripura, sacked from the party last month, joined the BJP on Monday, lending a tinge of saffron to the 60-member state Assembly, dominated by the communists for decades.
The BJP has become the main Opposition party in Tripura, a state it has never won. The ruling CPM has 50 seats in the Assembly and its ally CPI has one MLA.
MLAs Sudip Roy Barman, Ashish Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Biswa Bandhu Sen, Pranjit Singh and Dilip Sarkar were inducted into the BJP in Agartala in the presence of Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Tripura goes to the polls next year. The BJP has seen a recent surge in support in the North East, after winning elections in Assam and forming governments in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
Pradhan said that Tripura will be headed by a BJP Chief Minister in 2018. "They (the TMC MLAs) are joining my party, a strengthened party in Tripura. It is very clear that the next government in Tripura will be headed by a BJP CM," he said.
The former TMC members had met BJP President Amit Shah in New Delhi on Saturday. Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was also present at the meeting.
The six had resigned from the Congress and joined the TMC protesting against the grand old party's alliance with the CPI-M ahead of the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections. Led by Barman, the six legislators had voted for NDA's presidential nominee Ram Nath Kovind, which resulted in their ouster from the TMC.
Barman said that his party was searching for a platform from where they can give a solid fight to the CPM, thereby defeating and uprooting it form the government.
"There will be heavyweight leaders of West Bengal also joining the BJP soon to dislodge the forces in West Bengal as well," he said.
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