Bharatiya Janata Party’s newest member in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, on Saturday said he was “ashamed” of the fact that he was associated to the Trinamool Congress for so many years, reported ANI. The politician expressed his happiness about how he was now a member of a “nationalist, pluralist, disciplined and patriotic party” like the BJP.

“The political party I had been associated [with] earlier has no discipline now,” Adhikari said, addressing a meeting of party workers at the BJP office in Kolkata. “It has turned into a company from a party. I am ashamed of having associated with the party for 21 years.”

The former Trinamool Congress leader said that West Bengal needed the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Only the combination of BJP government at the Centre and that in Bengal can lead the state towards economic development and tackle the issue of unemployment,” he claimed.

Adhikari thanked Union home minister Amit Shah for accepting him. “The BJP is the largest political party in the world,” he said. “Now, I am a member of this nationalist, pluralist, disciplined and patriotic party. Our objective would be to make the party win the forthcoming Assembly elections and create ‘Sonar Bengal’ [Golden Bengal].”

The former West Bengal minister further accused the Trinamool government of depriving 73 lakh farmers of the state by not implementing the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi policy – a charge first made by Modi during his address to the farmers on December 25.

Adhikari alleged that under the current dispensation, “BJP workers have been beaten mercilessly”. He added, “False cases were framed against them and 135 workers have sacrificed their lives to steer the party’s ascendancy in West Bengal.”

After a long drawn period of public dissatisfaction with the ruling Trinamool Congress, Adhikari joined the BJP during Shah’s two-day visit to West Bengal on December 19. Earlier, he resigned from all the positions he held in the Trinamool Congress on December 17. This came a day after he resigned as a member of the Legislative Assembly and almost 20 days after he resigned as West Bengal transport minister. He had quit from the post of chairperson of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners too.

Ever since he joined the BJP, Adhikari has launched a wave of criticism against Banerjee and her government. On December 25, he asserted that the BJP will win more than 200 seats in the Assembly elections in the state next year.