In another boost for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the northeast, 400 members of the Trinamool Congress joined the right-wing body in Tripura on Thursday. Former chief of the TMC’s state unit Ratan Chakraborty is among those who switched camps. Trinamool’s state committee member Nitai Chowdhuri said the group included 16 of the party’s 65 Tripura committee members, , PTI reported.

“BJP is the only political party in the country that has attached maximum importance to develop the backward northeast region. I have full confidence that the BJP will be able to free the state from the clutches of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) and form a government in the 2018 elections to give relief to the people”, Chakraborty told reporters.

The former TMC leader said he will work towards bringing more supporters aboard, including from the Trinamool Congress, to work for the saffron party. BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said, “The BJP will get an absolute majority in the 2018 state elections in Tripura, and the ruling CPI(M) will be washed away in a saffron tsunami.”