Former Tamluk MP Laxman Seth on Thursday joined the Congress, the switch adding another chapter to his political journey that started with the CPM in the seventies, followed by an attempt to roll out his own political outfit and finally a brief stop over at the saffron camp till the BJP slammed the doors on him.

“The state unit had sought the AICC’s opinion on Seth. Rahul Gandhi has approved his joining and candidature from Tamluk. We welcome him to the party,” said Congress state unit chief Somen Mitra at Seth’s joining ceremony in Bidhan Bhavan on Thursday.

Three-term Tamluk MP Seth, a prime accused in the Nandigram police-firing that killed 14 people in 2007, has been trying for a foothold outside the CPM since his ouster from the party for anti-party activities in 2014.

Later that year, he formed his own outfit called the Bharat Nirman Party. In 2016, he joined the BJP and last year the saffron camp showed him the door.

“He then tried to join Trinamul Congress, but Mamata Banerjee rejected him. After he asked to join the Congress, some in the state unit were reluctant to accept him, so he sought Congress chief Rahul’s endorsement and finally got it,” said a source close to Seth.

“The CPM has become irrelevant. The Congress is the only true secular force in the country, so I decided to work for it,” said Seth.

Once the CPM’s go-to man in East Midnapore, Seth’s clout drastically declined in the district with the rise of Trinamul’s Adhikari clan in the wake of Mamata’s anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram.

In 2012, he spent around four months in police and judicial custody following the Trinamul-led government’s action on the Nandigram cases.

Seth, who will turn 73 next month, won as the CPM candidate from Tamluk in the Lok Sabha polls of 1998, 1999 and 2004. Prior to that, he was the CPM’s candidate in the Sutahata Assembly seat – ceased to exist in 2011 – since 1977 and won three Assembly elections from the seat between 1982 and 1991.

Sources in the state unit said although Mitra was willing to induct Seth, there was considerable resistance from other sections, led by the likes of Behrampore MP Adhir Chowdhury and Bengal’s leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan.

“Seth has had a considerably negative image and is of little use now. Even for the CPM, he had become a liability towards the end. So some leaders did not want him in the Congress, that too after he was thrown out even by the BJP and turned away by Trinamul,” said a state unit leader.