Tapasi Mondal, a close associate of Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, joined the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday. She joined the TMC at its headquarters in Kolkata in the presence of state Power Minister Aroop Biswas. Her defection dealt a strong blow to the BJP in Purba Medinipur, where the port town of Haldia is located. The TMC is seeing this defection as a major breach ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. The BJP won 77 seats in the 294-member assembly in the 2021 elections, its 12 MLAs joined TMC after they won the election. But Barrackpore’s Arjun Singh returned to BJP after he was denied a ticket by TMC in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Some of these 12 legislators did not resign as BJP MLAs, while a few had given up their memberships of the assembly to force bypolls in their seats and return to the House after winning them.