Calcutta, April 11: Mumtaz Begum, the Trinamul Congress councillor from Garden Reach in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, joined the Congress today, months before the civic body goes to polls.

Mumtaz said she was ready to fight the June 19 elections on a Congress ticket.

Seven Trinamul councillors have crossed over to the Congress in the past few months. Pradip Ghosh, Rajsekhar Gupta, Pratima Mandal, Iqbal Ahmed, Susanta Ghosh and Radheshyam Saha had changed allegiance earlier, triggering reports of discontent in Mamata Banerjee?s party.

Former state Congress chief Somen Mitra, who was present when Mumtaz vowed loyalty to her new party, also invited Trinamul mayor Subrata Mukherjee to come back. ?Subrata Mukherjee is an old colleague. We will all be very happy if he joins us,? Mitra said.

The invite is significant in the wake of a meeting between Mukherjee and Union minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi. In the 141-seat CMC, Trinamul is now in the minority.

Sailen Ghosh, a Trinamul councillor of Baruipur municipality, also joined the Congress this evening with Mumtaz. A local committee member of the CPM?s Liluah unit, Abichal Ghosh, too, quit his party for Sonia Gandhi?s.