AGARTALA, Dec 22 - Congress MLA Ratan Lal Nath, and a small section of the ruling CPI-M, today joined BJP here ahead of the Assembly elections due next year.
Apart from Nath, president of Tripura unit of Pradesh Mohila Congress and councillor of Agartala Municipal Council (AMC), Himani Debbarma, also joined BJP today.
Ram Madhav, General Secretary of BJP, today inducted Nath into the party by handing over the saffron flag. The other new recruits were received by State BJP president Biplab Kumar Deb.
With the induction of Nath, the total number of MLAs of the saffron party in Tripura�s 60-member House rose to seven.
Earlier, six MLAs from Trinamool Congress (TMC) who had won with Congress tickets, joined the saffron party in August this year.
State media in-charge Victor Shome said, altogether, 1,000 people from 350 families from West Tripura district today joined BJP.
Nath claimed that he switched allegiance to BJP to crush �corruptions of CPI-M� and see a BJP Government in the State in the Assembly elections to be held early next year.
�Tripura would be the 20th State in the country to be ruled by BJP because majority of people in the State were dreaming of a BJP Government,� Ram Madhav said.
Chairman of North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma said, nobody can stop BJP from forming the government in Tripura. � PTI