India, May 15 -- John Barla, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and Union minister of state, joined the state's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday, nearly four months after stoking speculation by attending an administrative meeting of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Barla, 49, represented north Bengal's Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat from 2019 to 2024 and served as union minister of state for minority affairs from 2021 to 2024.

"The BJP did not let me do anything for tribal people and tea garden workers in north Bengal. We had been demanding land rights for tea garden workers since 2007. Mamata Banerjee has given at least five decimals of land to each of them. She has launched so many welfare projects for the tribal. Leader of t...