Six sacked Tripura TMC MLAs to join BJP on August 7

AGARTALA: The six sacked Tripura Trinamool Congress(TMC) MLAs, who voted for NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind, will formally join BJP on August 7.

"The MLAs will meet BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi tomorrow. Their joining was finalized earlier following discussion with our central leaders," BJP spokesman Victor Shom said.

He said, the MLAs along with their supporters would join in a public meeting on Monday in the presence of party General Secretary Ram Madhab, Convener of North-East Democratic Alliance and Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and state party President, Biplab Deb and and the party's Tripura observer, Sunil Deodhar.

The sacked MLAs had announced that they would not vote for a candidate in the presidential poll who was supported by CPI-M.

Former Leader of Opposition in Tripura Assembly Sudip Roy Barman and five other MLAs had quit Congress in protest against the party's electoral understanding with the CPI(M) in the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections and had joined the TMC. They were, however, sacked from TMC after they had openly announced their support for Kovind.