Kolkata: Former minister and Forward Bloc (FB) leader of North Bengal Paresh Adhikary on Friday join-ed the TMC. Trinamul secretary general Partha Chatterjee handed over the party flag to him at Trinamul Bhavan in presence of North Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh and irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee.

During the Communist regime, Mr Adhikary was elected as an MLA four times —1991, 2001, 2006 and 2011 — from Mekhli-ganj in Cooch Behar. He also served as the food and supplies minister. Mr Adhikary, however, lost to Arghya Roy Pradhan of the Trinamul in 2016. Since then, speculation was rife about his switching to the ruling party.

Earlier, another prominent FB leader and MLA Udayan Guha had switched to the Trinamul before the Assembly elections in 2016. Recently, the Mamata Banerjee government issued a notification stating the appointment of Mr Adhikary as the chairman of the Changrabandha Development Authority in place of Mr Pradhan.

After coming to power in 2011, the Trinamul government ordered a criminal probe into an iron ore scam about which Mr Adhikary had lodged complaint after becoming the food and supplies minister in 2007. Later, Naren De, Mr Adhikary’s predecessor, was questionned by the state detective agency also.