Agartala, Sept. 5: The Trinamul has selected Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, an indigenous MLA, as the leader of the Trinamul Legislature Party, the party's all-India vice-president Mukul Roy said here today.

The party today also welcomed into its fold 2,150 supporters of different political parties like the CPM, Congress and the CPI (ML) in presence of Roy.

Hrangkhawl, a veteran tribal leader and former Tripura PCC chief, joined the Trinamul in April. He had been an MLA of the now-defunct Tripura Upajati Juba Samity for two successive terms between 1983 and 1993. Hrangkhawl won the last Assembly polls in 2013 as a Congress candidate from Karamcherra constituency of North Tripura district against CPM stalwart Gajendra Tripura.

Six MLAs, led by former Opposition leader Sudip Roy Barman, resigned from the Congress on April 27 and joined the Trinamul on June 7 in protest against the Congress's alliance with the Left Front ahead of the Bengal Assembly elections.

"Hrangkhawl has been chosen as leader of the TMC Legislature Party in Tripura. Trinamul's Tripura unit chairman Ratan Chakraborty will communicate this decision to the Speaker soon," Roy Barman said.

The six legislators, after three-month-long parleys, were recognised as TMC MLAs by Tripura Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath on August 29. The Speaker, citing rules and a Supreme Court verdict, refused to give the status of Opposition party to the Trinamul in the House.

"The Trinamul will get the status of the Opposition party soon and they will seek the position by referring to the rules and the apex court verdict," Roy Barman said.

He said the six MLAs comprise the second largest legislature group of the party in India after Bengal where the party has been ruling since 2011.

Roy, who came here on Sunday and addressed a gathering at Udaipur, said a large number of CPM and Congress members were keen to join Trinamul.

"The political situation in Tripura is the same as it was in Bengal in 2008. The ruling CPM is rapidly losing people's support. We will come to power in Tripura in the Assembly elections in 2018. We will wrest power from the Left Front by overcoming all hurdles. This is our mission. People of the plains and hills of Tripura will vote for us and we will present them with good governance," he added.

Before leaving for Calcutta, Roy said party chief Mamata Banerjee would soon constitute a full-fledged state committee of the Trinamul.

The Trinamul will organise a rally in Agartala on September 23, a month to the day violent clashes took place here on August 23. Altogether, 24 persons, including five policemen, were injured and 17 private vehicles damaged. The clashes had occurred after the activists of a tribal party, the Indigenous People's Front of Twipra, took out a rally here, demanding a separate state.