India, June 8 -- Senior Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy said on Monday that he had turned down an offer from the BJP to switch sides, asserting he would stay in the party on whose symbol he was elected, even as he credited the opposition INDIA bloc with shoring up the TMC at a moment of acute strain.

"Yes, I got an offer (from the BJP) to join it. But I rejected it. I will stay in the party on whose symbol I won the election," Roy told news agency ANI.

His remarks came on the day the TMC's leadership huddled with INDIA bloc partners in Delhi even as the party battled visible defections at home, with a Rajya Sabha MP resigning and a group of Lok Sabha members meeting West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP.

Roy said the...