Om Prakash Mishra, who had stepped down as the Congress state unit vice-president after the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday. Accompanied by state Transport Minister and senior TMC leader Suvendu Adhikari, Mishra met TMC chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the latter’s chamber in the Assembly before joining the party.
Speaking to the mediapersons after joining the TMC, Mishra said, “The state Congress leaders feel that if the TMC is weakened, the BJP could be weakened. This does not go with the politics of the Congress. I had submitted my resignation as state vice-president of the party. My resignation has been accepted. I have been in politics for 39 years and now I have decided that I should join the TMC. I feel that for national politics, there is a need to strengthen the Trinamool Congress.”
QKolkata: DGP Meets Governor On North 24 Parganas & More
“I feel that only this party (TMC) under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee can fight the BJP and the RSS in West Bengal,” Mishra added.
Soon after his induction, Mishra was made the chairman of the All India Trinamool Congress Education Forum, the party’s teachers’ forum.
Meanwhile, reacting to Mishra’s joining the TMC, state Congress president Somen Mitra said that the former state vice-president had been pushing for an alliance with the TMC.
“He had said that we should have entered into an alliance with the TMC, which our party did not want. He (Mishra) had tendered his resignation and we have accepted his resignation,” Mitra said.