Tennis player Leander Paes joined the Trinamool Congress on Friday in the presence of party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, ahead of the state assembly elections in Goa next year.

“We are extremely delighted to share that Shri @Leander joined us today in the presence of our Hon’ble Chairperson @MamataOfficial! Together, we shall ensure that every single person in this nation sees the Dawn of Democracy that we have been waiting for since 2014!,” the TMC said in a tweet.

Mamata Banerjee compared Leander Paes to her younger brother while making the announcement on Friday, according to India Today.

“Happy to inform that Leander Paes joins TMC. He is my younger brother. I know him since I was the youth minister and he was very very young,” Mamata Banerjee said. 

Leander Paes joins the ranks of  Bollywood actresses Nafisa Ali and Mrinalini Deshprabhu who had earlier joined the TMC. 

Mamata Banerjee is on a three-day visit to the poll-bound Goa, where she will meet several people to discuss the expansion of her party’s presence in the coastal state. She has already stated that her party will contest all seats in the forthcoming assembly elections, underscoring her national ambitions.

Mamata Banerjee told her party workers in Goa that the BJP calls her “anti-Hindu” although it has no authority to give a “character certificate” to her, and added that the “initial letters in her party’s name — TMC — also stand for temple, mosque and church.”

“When I come to Goa, they deface my posters. You will be defaced from India,” she said.

“You deface us (our posters), show black flags, refuse to grant permission (to hold events) because you know that TMC will die but will never compromise,” she said while targeting the ruling BJP in Goa, The Hindu reported.