Date:15/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/15/stories/2008121559021300.htm

National

Senior Congress leader decides to join Trinamool

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: In what is being construed as a major setback to the Congress in the State only months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Sudip Bandopadhyay, a senior leader and MLA of the party announced here on Sunday that he has decided to re-join the Trinamool Congress.

Mr. Bandopadhyay will meet Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee in New Delhi on Monday. Mr. Bandopadhyay left the Congress to join the Trinamool when the party was formed in 1998.

He rejoined the Congress after being expelled from the Trinamool in 2004. He expressed his resentment over the manner the Congress leadership had been ignoring “his seniority in politics,” citing it to be one reason for deciding to leave the party.