In a blow to the Congress, its lone councillor in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Santosh Pathak, on Monday joined the BJP.

The four-time councillor, Pathak, joined the BJP in the presence of state party chief Samik Bhattacharya, former Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb, Amit Malviya, and state general secretary Locket Chatterjee.

Hitting out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and nephew Abhishek, Pathak said, “The TMC government is being run by the aunt-nephew duo… In Ward No. 45, from where I contest, the TMC government had deployed five IPS and around 10,000 people to snatch away my seat. Even the police were giving proxy votes. I had tried to stop them. The ruling TMC does not want any opposition to exist. But this time I feel that the time has come under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to throw this government out.”

Pathak, who hails from Buxar in Bihar, however, was not critical of the Congress leadership. “I will not say that the leadership of Congress is bad. Adhir (Ranjan Chowdhury) is a good leader. The BJP will decide what work I will do. I know how to fight. Here in the BJP, I can fight more,” he added.

BJP is likely to field Pathak from the Chowranghee seat in the Assembly polls, party sources said.

Welcoming him, state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya said, “We had contacted Pathak, and he spoke with us. He felt that it is BJP which can uproot the TMC. The entire Bengali community all over the world wants the TMC to go.”

Earlier, Wasim Ansari, the Congress councillor from Ward 137, had joined the TMC.