Union home minister Amit Shah said there would be more desertions from the Trinamul Congress and that Bengal chief minister would be left alone in her party, his assertions coming on a day he presided over the induction of TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari and several other MLAs into the BJP.

Addressing a party rally at Midnapore, Shah alleged the Mamata Banerjee’s government was steeped in corruption resulting in alienation of the masses. He exuded confidence that the BJP would form the next government in the state (with a 294-membr Assembly) with more than 200 seats.

“Why are so many people leaving Trinamool Congress? Because of the misrule, corruption and nepotism of Mamata Banerjee. Didi, this is just the beginning. By the time elections come, you will be left all alone," he said, according to ndtv.com

BJP leaders and workers present Union Home Minister Amit Shah with a huge garland during a rally at Midnapore on Saturday. PTI

Adhikari, nine MLAs of various parties _ five of them from the TMC _ and a TMC MP joined the BJP on Saturday.

"I want to say it clearly that the BJP will form the next government in the state … political violence and intimidation by the TMC won't yield any benefit. BJP president J P Nadda's convoy was attacked, so many our party workers have been killed," Shah said.

"The more violence you (the TMC) perpetrate, the more stronger the BJP will emerge," he asserted.

Taking a swipe at the TMC over a string of desertions ahead of the assembly elections, the BJP leader said, "By the time elections arrive, Mamata Banerjee will be left alone in her party."

Addressing the crowd at the rally, Adhikari said that the TMC came into existence because of the saffron party. “I had first met Amit Shah during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls... When I was down with Covid, my former party did not enquire about my health, while Amit Shah twice enquired about how I am, he said.

Adhikari, a former close associate of Mamata, alleged that her party wanted to divide the nation on the lines of “insider” and “outsider”, while nationalism and pluralism was the ideal of the BJP.

Former TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari stands with Amit Shah following his induction to the BJP, at a rally in Midnapore on Saturday. PTI

“Shame on the TMC for such narrow politics,” Adhikari said amid a thunderous applause from the crowd. “I am being called a traitor by those who themselves (TMC) are traitors. Had the BJP not been there, TMC would have never come into existence. In the next Assembly polls, BJP will win Bengal and TMC will be defeated,” the 50-year-old said.

In an open letter addressed to the grassroots members of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, Suvendu said that Bengal was standing at a critical juncture as the people of the state were destined to make a choice in the 2021 Assembly elections that would impact them forever.

“Neither West Bengal nor the Trinamool Congress is anyone's fiefdom,” he said.

Asserting that the party was not built in one day with the contribution of one person, he wrote that it was a continuous and contiguous effort on a mammoth scale, the culmination of which was the TMC's coming to power in Bengal in 2011.

Adhikari had tendered his resignation from the TMC on Thursday, a day after quitting as a member of Bengal’s Legislative Assembly.

He alleged that the TMC, which the ordinary people built brick by brick selflessly without any desires, is now filled with individuals who do not bother about anyone but themselves.

According to NDTV, at least 50 TMC, Congress and Left leaders had switched over to the saffron party in Midnapore.

On Saturday, TMC MLAs Banasri Maity, Silbhdrada Dutta, Biswajit Kundu, Sukra Munda and Saikat Panja took up the saffron flag at the mammoth rally at the College Grounds in Midnapore.

MLA Dipali Biswas, who had won the Gajole seat in 2016 on a CPI(M) ticket but joined the TMC in 2018, was also inducted into the BJP. She has not resigned as a CPI(M) MLA.

Haldias CPI(M) MLA Tapasi Mandal, Tamluks CPI MLA Ashok Dinda and Congress MLA from Purulia Sudip Mukherjee also joined the BJP at the rally.

Former TMC MP Dasarth Tirkey also joined the BJP.

Several district-level leaders of the TMC, Left and Congress, including former minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, also changed sides and joined the BJP.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah waves at his supporters during a rally at Midnapore on Saturday. PTI

Earlier, garlanding the statue of Khudiram at the freedom fighter's ancestral residence, Shah said that he has inspired the youths of the country with his slogan 'Vande Mataram' while he was hanged by the British in 1908 at the age of 18.

“I want to tell those who are doing narrow politics in Bengal that Khudiram Bose is as much a pride of India as he is of Bengal,” he said in his address.

In an indirect attack on the TMC, he said that those doing politics over regionalism should overcome it.

Mamata and other leaders of the party have often accused the BJP of bringing in “outsiders” just before the Assembly elections.

Shah said that those brave sons of the country who fought and made great sacrifices for Independence together “could never have imagined such narrow politics of regionalism”.