The lotus will bloom in every home, Soumendu Adhikari had said on Thursday.
Days after rebel Trinamool leader and former Bengal minister Suvendu Adhikari quit Mamata Banerjee's party and joined the BJP, his youngest brother, too, switched sides and today joined the saffron camp.
Soumendu Adhikari was a Trinamool councillor and chairperson of the Kanthi municipality in East Midnapore district, Suvendu Adhikari's home turf. Summarily removed from that post last week, he joined the BJP today with at least a dozen other Trinamool councilors in the presence of Suvendu Adhikari at a rally at Kanthi's Dormitary Ground.
Two other members of the Adhikari family are still Trinamool MPs - Suvendu Adhikari's father Sisir and brother Dibyendu - something that Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool MP and Mamata Banerjee's nephew, had mocked Suvendu Adhikari about on Saturday. Ms Banerjee had said a man who can't make the lotus bloom in his own house is trying to do so across West Bengal.
Suvendu Adhikari had retorted that the lotus would not only bloom in his own house, but on Kolkata's Harish Mukherjee and Harish Chatterjee Streets, too. Abhishek Banerjee lives on Harish Mukherjee Road, a stone's throw from Harish Chatterjee Street where the chief minister lives.
On Thursday, Soumendu Adhikari himself had said that the "lotus will bloom in every home", hinting at his impending cross-over following in his brother's footsteps.
"The TMC will steadily disintegrate," Suvendu Adhikari said earlier today in Nandigram, East Midnapore district. He joined the BJP on December 19, along with six other Trinamool MLAs and a party MP, during Mr Shah's rally in Medinipur.
His father Sisir Adhikari and brother Dibyendu Adhikari haven't shown any indication of moving out yet.
With a raft of local leaders joining the BJP, the party is priming itself to replace Trinamool in West Bengal in the next assembly polls scheduled for April-May this year.
However, Mamata Banerjee has shrugged off these reversals and appears confident of retaining power.