Agartala/Shillong, Sep 23 (IANS): Several Congress and BJP leaders in Tripura, including state Congress general secretary Baptu Chakraborty, joined the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday.

Trinamool leaders said that besides Chakraborty, former Congress vice-presidents Bapi Bhowmik and Ambika Dey, former Youth Congress vice-president Amit Kumar Saha, former Khayerpur Block Congress president Haripada Ghosh, former Mahila Congress president Shipra Karmakar, former Khayerpur Seva Dal (Congress) president Ajit Das and former Khayerpur BJP Mondal secretary Gopal Debnath have joined the Trinamool.

The Congress and BJP leaders joined the party in the presence of Trinamool Congress leader Sushmita Dev, party's Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen and Trinamool leader Ashish Lal Sinha.

Meanwhile, reports from Shillong said that former Meghalaya Chief Minister and Congress leader Mukul Sangma reportedly met Trinamool's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Kolkata on Tuesday, triggering speculation amid a reported rift within the Congress in the northeastern state.

Sangma and few other political leaders from Meghalaya are in Kolkata now, fuelling speculation in the political circles in the hill state about their possible political somersault.

Though officially the Trinamool leaders and the possible turncoats are not confirming about their joining, according to unconfirmed reports, there was some dialogue between them and the Trinamool Congress leadership in Kolkata.

According to a Congress leader in Shillong, the party high command in Delhi did not keep Sangma in the loop while recently choosing Vincent H. Pala, also a Lok Sabha member, as the state party President.