NEW DELHI: As was largely expected, former Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi who was considered as the close confidant of party supremo Mamata Banerjee today joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of several leaders including its president J P Nadda, and Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan.

On 12 February 2021, Trivedi had announced quitting the party and his Rajya Sabha membership on the floor of the House saying that he was feeling suffocated that party members like him were not able to do anything over violence in the state of West Bengal.

Praising Trivedi as a principled politician, Nadda said that he had been a right person in the wrong party but was now in the right party.

Taking a dig at his former party Trinamool Congress, Trivedi said that family is supreme in some parties but it is people who are supreme in the BJP and added that he had been waiting for this 'golden moment' to join BJP.

He also praised the Modi government for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues involving neighbouring countries.

In the recent past a large number of Trinamool leaders have quit the party and joined the BJP as the saffron party puts up an aggressive campaign against sitting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's hoping to end her 10-year-old reign in the state.

While quitting from TMC, Trivedi had mentioned in his parting note that while he was grateful to his former party for sending him the Rajya Sabha, Trivedi also said, "I am not alone, if you ask the people in the party they feel the same. We had joined the party by looking at Mamata Banerjee but now it’s no longer her party."