‘Defeating BJP Top Priority’: Mamata After Kirti Azad, Ashok Tanwar & Pavan Varma Join TMC

NEW DELHI: In another jolt to the Congress, its another party leader Kirti Azad Jha, who was part of the 1983 Cricket World Cup winning team on Tuesday joined the Trinamool Congress in the presence of party chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee here.

Besides Azad, former Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Pavan Varma and Ashok Tanwar, who quit the Congress in 2019, also joined the Trinamool Congress. READ: Violence Mars Peace In Tripura As TMC, CPIM Clash With BJP Over MC Polls

The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) had expelled Pavan Varma and poll strategist Prashant Kishor from the party on January 29 last year for allegedly failing to accept ‘party discipline’.

Both Varma and Kishor had been critical of the JD(U) over the party’s decision to endorse the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Bihar CM Kumar had first spoken about Pavan Varma on January 23, telling reporters, “He (Pavan Varma) is free to go wherever he wants.”.

After joining the Trinamool Congress Azad said:

It makes me happy to say that under the leadership of Banerjee, I shall work for the development of the nation. Today, a personality like her is needed in the country, who can guide the country the right direction

Azad had switched alliance with the Congress after resigning from the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Son of former Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad, Azad began his political career with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was elected thrice to Lok Sabha from his birthplace of Darbhanga in Bihar.

Azad was suspended from the BJP in 2015 for “anti-party” activities after he launched an attack on the then finance minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), which was then headed by the minister.

Defeating BJP Is Our Top Priority: Mamata Banerjee

Even former Congress Haryana leader Ashok Tanwar also joined the Trinamool Congress here. He had resigned from Congress in 2019 ahead of the assembly polls in the state. Once considered a close aide of Rahul Gandhi had formed his own party in Haryana.

After inducting the three leaders into her party fold, Banerjee speaking to media and said, “I want to go to Haryana. I shall go there as soon as Tanwar invites me.”

She said that defeating BJP is her party’s top priority.

The Trinamool Congress had earlier poached Congress leaders like Sushmita Dev, former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro, who was made the party’s vice-president. He has also been named as Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha candidate from West Bengal.

After a thumping victory in the assembly elections concluded earlier this year in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has been working to expand its footprint in Goa and Tripura, which will go to polls next year.

Sushmita Dev and Faleiro were brought into the Trinamool Congress fold eyeing the crucial assembly elections next year.

Apart from Faleiro, the party has also roped in tennis legend Leander Paes and many other personalities from different fields in Goa.

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