Former chairman of Contai municipality Soumendu Adhikari, who is also the younger brother of Trinamul turncoat Suvendu Adhikari, joined the BJP on Friday evening.

Soumendu’s switch to the BJP, along with 13 former councillors, comes three days after he was removed by Trinamul as municipality administrator. He filed a petition in Calcutta High Court against the move on Thursday.

Soumendu joined the BJP at the rally in Contai, East Midnapore. He, along with others, received BJP flags from the party’s Contai organisation secretary Anup Chakraborty at a rally held at the venue where Trinamul minister Firhad Hakim and MP Saugata Roy had addressed a meeting on December 23.

On Friday morning, Suvendu had given hints regarding Soumendu’s switch to

the BJP at the rally. Nandigram had become the centre of retaliatory rallies by the supporters of Suvendu and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

While Trinamul will hold a meeting of party workers in Nandigram on January 7, Suvendu is scheduled to hold a rally there the following day.

Suvendu said Soumendu joining the BJP was the beginning of a “decisive phase” in Bengal and the Mamata Banerjee government would lose majority “by January 30” considering the way “leaders (MLAs) were joining the BJP”.

“You have known me as a son of the soil. I have also been a councillor in Contai and we know what we have contributed,” Suvendu told a packed rally, his brother Soumendu by his side.

“Trinamul says I had been in talks with the BJP for months. Yes, I had been, but it is to ensure that youths can get jobs in the state after clearing exams,” he added.

Contai Trinamul leader Mahmud Hossain said Soumendu joining the BJP had “proven Trinamul’s suspicions right”.

“It was for the best he was removed from his post of municipality administrator. He did not even wait for a week to switch sides,” he added.