New Delhi : Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s hold over her party continues to weaken. After 61 MLAs threw their weight behind rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee, the rebellion has now spread to Parliament. Fresh visuals of Sushmita Dev meeting Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have added momentum to speculation over her imminent entry into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), soon after she resigned as a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament and quit Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Wednesday.
In a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan, she requested that her resignation be accepted with immediate effect. This is the second resignation within a week, after the party suffered its first major setback when Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, its chief whip in the Upper House for 13 years, quit as a Rajya Sabha MP following a scathing letter to Mamata Banerjee.
Praising BJP, Sukhendu further wrote: “The voters have, for the first time in Bengal’s history, given the Bharatiya Janata Party a massive victory in terms of seats. The newly elected government has already begun working to implement multiple programmes for Bengal’s overall development and reconstruction, in line with its election promises.”
Banerjee said leaders who were unhappy with the party should resign rather than continue to hold positions while publicly opposing the organisation. He argued that if any leader no longer wished to remain associated with the Trinamool Congress or had serious differences with the party, the ethical course of action was to step down. The remarks came a day after the rebel camp claimed that at least 20 of the party’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs had decided to support the NDA.
