Former Congress leader Kirti Azad and former party MP Ashok Tanwar on Tuesday joined the Trinamool Congress.

Azad had joined Congress in 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, The New Indian Express reported.

Before his stint with the Congress, he was a part of the BJP for 26 years. Azad was suspended from the saffron party in 2015 after he accused former Union minister Arun Jaitley of corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association.

Tanwar had left the Congress before the Haryana Assembly election in 2019 after political disagreements with former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, The Indian Express noted.

Earlier on Tuesday, former Janata Dal (United) leader Pavan K Varma also joined the Trinamool Congress at an event in Delhi.

In January 2020, the Janata Dal (United) had expelled Varma from the party after he criticised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act. At the time, the party also expelled political strategist Prashant Kishor for the same reason.

Varma had asked Kumar to “take a principled stand” against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.

The former Janata Dal (United) leader was a member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha between June 2014 and July 2016.

Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also met lyricist Javed Akhtar and activist and columnist Sudheendra Kulkarni on Tuesday.

Kulkarni had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1996 and had left the party in 2009. He was earlier a close aide of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and had worked as his speechwriter.

Following the Trinamool Congress’ victory in the Assembly polls, several political leaders have quit the BJP.

Five MLAs – Krishna Kalyani, Mukul Roy, Tanmoy Ghosh, Biswajit Das and Soumen Roy – returned to the Trinamool Congress in the last two months.

Former Union minister Babul Supriyo left the BJP and joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party on September 18.

Former West Bengal minister Rajib Banerjee also quit the saffron party on October 31 to join the Trinamool Congress.