Rebel Suvendu Adhikari quits Trinamool; Asansol’s outgoing mayor steps down

There are speculations that Adhikari might join the BJP during Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to poll-bound West Bengal this weekend.

Former West Bengal minister and heavyweight leader Suvendu Adhikari resigned from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday by writing a formal letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Former Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari, who quit the Mamata Banerjee cabinet last month, resigned from the membership of West Bengal legislative assembly on Wednesday, a day before leaving the party.(PTI FILE)

“Respected Madam, I am writing to tender my resignation as a member of the All India Trinamool Congress as well as from all other positions held by me in the party and its associate organs with immediate effect. I am thankful for all the challenges and opportunities that has been afforded to me and I will always value my time spent as a member of the party,” Adhikari wrote in the short letter.

He was a member of the TMC’s steering committee and state committee as well as a leader of the trade union front. Last month, he had quit the cabinet in which he held three important departments.

Though the body of the letter was typed in English, the date was hand-written. The initial date appeared to be December 15 but was overwritten and changed to December 16. TMC leaders said they received it on Thursday morning.

In another significant development, popular TMC leader Jitendra Tiwari resigned from the post of chairman of the board of administrators of Asansol Municipal Corporation in West Burdwan district.

Jitendra Tiwari quit the TMC around 4.45 pm. He alleged that his office at Pandabeswar was ransacked by miscreants shortly after he resigned from the post of chairman of the administrative board at the Asansol civic body.

He also stepped down from the post of president of the TMC’s West Burdwan district unit and sent a letter to Subrata Bakshi, the party’s state president.

“Now there is no need to meet the chief minister on Friday. I have not decided whether I will resign from the state assembly,” said Tiwari while the TMC faction opposed to him took out a rally in Asansol town.

“Tiwari was not a big leader as such. Mamata Banerjee, who made him an MLA and mayor, had asked him to wait till she returns from north Bengal. People who do not have any ideology are leaving the TMC in search of better fortune. This is unfortunate but the party will not suffer,” Saugata Roy, TMC Lok Sabha member and party spokesperson told HT.

In Murshidabad district, six area presidents of the TMC resigned in the Bamangola community block area. At Dankuni in Hooghly district, Debasish Mukherjee, deputy chairman of the local civic body, stepped down and spoke out against the party. Gargi Mukherjee, president of the TMC’s women’s unit at Haldia in East Midnapore district, also resigned from her post.

CM Banerjee, also the party’s founder, had called up Tiwari on Wednesday and asked him not to take any drastic step till she returns from north Bengal and meets him on Friday. After quitting the civic body, Tiwari remained non-committal on whether he would meet her.

Tiwari is president of the TMC’s district unit and lawmaker from the local Pandabeswar assembly seat. Union minister of state Babul Supriyo is the Lok Sabha member from Asansol. The district’s adjacent Lok Sabha seat, Bardhaman-Durgapur, is represented by another Union minister of state SS Ahluwalia. The BJP secured more votes than the TMC in almost all the assembly segments of the district during the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

“I promise you that after the assembly elections our men will be in charge of the civic body and solve your pending problems. These will not be solved now as the incumbent urban development minister will never address issues regarding development of Asansol,” Tiwari said in his last speech before the civic body staff. He did not name Firhad Hakim, the minister.

Tiwari attended a closed-door meeting with Adhikari and some other rebel lawmakers on Wednesday night. The meeting stoked speculations that Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to the poll-bound state this weekend might be marked by defections of TMC rebels to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shah will address rallies and party workers in three districts on December 19 and 20.

Tiwari, however, said after the meeting that his allegiance to the chief minister was intact. On Thursday, he said, “I want the TMC to keep Adhikari in the party. If the party wants me to quit from the assembly, I will do so immediately.”

Meanwhile, Adhikari’s resignation from the assembly ran into rough weather.

When Adhikari went to the assembly house on Wednesday afternoon to submit his hand-written letter, the speaker was not present in his office. Though received by the assembly secretary, the letter raised several technical questions since Adhikari did not put any date on it and did not write or sign it before the Speaker --- something anti-defection rules of the assembly demands.

The speaker, Biman Banerjee, said on Thursday that Adhikari’s resignation as an MLA had not been accepted on technical grounds. “There are technical issues. The resignation cannot be accepted. He will be informed eventually,” Banerjee said.

Adhikari represents East Midnapore district’s Nandigram seat, where a land movement helped TMC chief Banerjee oust the Left Front government in 2011.

Adhikari became a TMC lawmaker for the first time in 2006. His father, Sisir Adhikari, is the eldest among the party’s Lok Sabha members and has been Banerjee’s close associate since the birth of the TMC in 1998.

Adhikari, his father and two brothers represent two Lok Sabha constituencies and an assembly seat in East Midnapore. They also run the civic body at Contai, their hometown.