Expelled CPI-M leader Rezzak Mollah joins Trinamool

Besides Rezzak Mollah, cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla and former BCCI president late Jagmohan Dalmiya's daughter Baishali Dalmiya joined the TMC party on Friday in the presence of West Bengal CM and party chief Mamata Banerjee.

They joined the ruling party during party's extended general council meeting in Kolkata's Netaji Indoor Stadium.

After joining the TMC, Rezzak Mollah told IBNS, "It's my own choice to join the TMC. I  will not give explanation for it to anyone."

The CPI-M earlier expelled Abdur Rezzak Mollah from the party for anti-party activities on Feb 26, 2014.

He formed a new political party- Bharatiya Naybichar Party (BNP) on Oct 18, 2014.

However, Mollah was expelled from the BNP last month for establishing relationship with Mamata Banerjee and her TMC party.

Mamata Banerjee said, "Rezzak Mollah, who took active part in several Left's movements and peasants' movements, is joining our party today. We are very happy."

Meanwhile, ridiculing the possibility of an alliance between the Left and the Congress for the Bengal Assembly polls, Banerjee said, "Once, CPI-M used to call Indira Gandhi an autocrat and Rajeev Gandhi the 'Bofors Gandhi'. Today it's trying to make an alliance with Congress. A party should never lose its ideology."

Mamata Banerjee also advised Trinamool's student wing activists to be disciplined from the meeting here.   

"I would advise to all our student-activists to be disciplined and to work in your area next 10-15 years dedicatedly. I will not direct you to engage in clash in your colleges. In the past, many clashes were recorded in colleges regularly. But now a days, such incidents are not being observed in the state," she added.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)