The tribal couple from West Bengal’s Naxalbari district who hosted lunch last week for Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, on Wednesday joined the Trinamool Congress, PTI reported. “I was inspired by the development work of Mamata Banerjee and that is why we have joined the TMC. Nobody has forced us to join the party,” Geeta Mahali said. Her picture showing her, with her husband Raju, hosting Shah was widely shared on the social media.

Their induction into the TMC was conducted by West Bengal Tourism Minister Gautam Deb. However, the BJP has accused the TMC of “kidnapping” the couple and then forcing them to join the party. “We had reports that they were being threatened by TMC goons. They had been missing for the last two days,” West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.

Darjeeling BJP leader Pravin Agarwal said they had approached the police to file a missing complaint, but they were turned away by the police, reported Hindustan Times. Shah’s visit to West Bengal was proven to be a “success” as it had “unnerved” the TMC, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, adding that the development was a “textbook case of revenge politics”.

On April 25, Shah had launched BJP’s “Mission Bengal” programme from Naxalbari village – the place where a Maoist uprising started in 1960s. Shah with Dilip Ghosh had visited the Mahali household and sat down for lunch there.