A former BJP panchayat leader and close aide of senior BJP figure Suvendu Adhikari, Pabitra Kar, on Tuesday rejoined the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), fuelling fresh political buzz ahead of the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

Kar, who previously served as the pradhan of Boyal-1 gram panchayat in Nandigram-2 block of Purba Medinipur, formally returned to the TMC in the presence of the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

In a statement shared on social media, the TMC claimed that Kar had grown disillusioned with the BJP’s “anti-people stance,” prompting his return to the party he had left in November 2020.

During his stint with the BJP, Kar was considered a key organisational figure in the Boyal-1 region and is believed to have played an important role in helping the party secure a lead in the area during the 2021 Assembly elections.

That election saw Suvendu Adhikari defeat Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the high-profile Nandigram contest by a narrow margin of just over 1,900 votes.

Kar’s return to the TMC comes just hours before the party is expected to announce its candidate list, sparking speculation that he could be fielded against Adhikari in Nandigram, one of the most closely watched battlegrounds in the state.