Trinamool Congress ranks continue to swell with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmakers trickling back to Mamata Banerjee’s party. The latest to return to the party fold was BJP MLA Biswajit Das, accompanying  him was councillor Manotosh Nath. Both joined Trinamool on Monday in Kolkata.

Das was among hundreds of lawmakers, politicians and workers who had jumped ship from Trinamool in the run up to the Assembly elections held in March-April. Das’s return takes the Trinamool strength to 216 in the 294-member House. Elections were held for 292 seats and Mamata Banerjee-led party had won 213 seats. BJP won 77 seats.

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Earlier, two other BJP MLAs — Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar — did not take oath but resigned to retain their Lok Sabha seats, bringing down the party’s tally in the 294-member assembly to 75.

On Monday, BJP MLA Tanmay Ghosh, who won the Bishnupur seat in Bankura district in the March-April polls, joined the ruling party. Before him, Mukul Roy, who was a BJP national vice-president, returned to the TMC on June 11. 

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Mukul Roy’s return was followed by many BJP workers and leaders flocking back to Trinamool. In June this year, the saffron party’s Alipurduar district president and seven other party leaders had joined the Trinamool Congress. Hundreds of BJP workers sat on a dharna urging Banerjee to accept them back into her party.

“Mukul Roy is such a senior leader, if he felt insulted in the BJP, then all of us must go,” a BJP leader had said.

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The BJP and Trinamool had fought one of the most bitterly-contested elections with all top BJP leaders, including PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other Cabinet ministers holding multiple rallies.

On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee fought an almost lone battle, abandoned by many party leaders, including close aide Suvendu Adhikari. Not the one to get bogged down, Banerjee took the battle to Adhikari’s constituency Nandigram. She lost the elections but stormed back to power. Banerjee is likely to seek re-election from her earlier seat of Bhawanipur.