Alipurduar: A Trinamul team will soon travel to Assam, the trip apparently aimed at countering attempts by leaders from the BJP-ruled state to campaign for their party in the rural polls in north Bengal.

Sourav Chakraborty, the Trinamul Alipurduar MLA who will lead the team, on Saturday claimed some BJP leaders from the neighbouring state would join his party next month.

The BJP plans to bring in leaders and elected representatives from the Northeast to campaign in the rural polls later this year.

The visit of the Trinamul team to Assam is to counter the attempt and try and get some BJP leaders on board, who in turn, would be used against BJP during the campaign, said insiders.

"Mamata Banerjee and her party are also eyeing on a section of the Assam population who are disgruntled over National Registration of Citizens (NRC), an exercise that has been taken up in Assam. Added to it, if her party leaders succeed in getting some leaders of BJP and other parties of Assam into Trinamul, it can help Trinamul during the rural poll campaign, particularly in districts closer to Assam," said an observer.

Party insiders said in the middle of next month, Trinamul will organise a meeting in Siliguri where party leaders and state ministers like Firhad Hakim (who looks after the party in Assam), Aroop Biswas, Rabindranath Ghosh, Gautam Deb and Sourav Chakroborty will be present.

On Saturday, a group of political leaders from Assam visited the district Trinamul office here and met Chakraborty, who is also one of the observers of Trinamul in the northeastern state.

Among them include a relative of a BJP MLA in Assam, a prominent woman leader of Asom Gana Parishad, and 12 leaders of BJP from different parts of the state. A Congress MLA has also written a letter to him, expressing willingness to join Trinamul, claimed Chakraborty.

"For their safety however, we will not disclose their identity. We will visit Assam next month and have planned to hold a meeting with such leaders at Bongaigaon," he said.

The woman leader from AGP said: "In the next panchayat elections in Assam, we want Trinamul to become stronger. People have lost faith in the BJP. Most of the women poltical leaders speak of Mamata Banerjee. We feel Trinamul has good prospects but it needs to build the organisation."