The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress suffered another setback on Thursday as actor Koel Mallick, aka Rukmini Mallick, resigned from the Rajya Sabha, three months after she took oath as a member of the Upper House on April 6 and without ever attending a single session.
The popular Bengali movie actor submitted her resignation letter to the Rajya Sabha chairman, CP Radhakrishnan, in Delhi, and then drove straight to the residence of Union minister Bhupendra Yadav, sparking speculation that she, too, might join the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mallick is the fourth of the 13 TMC Rajya Sabha members to have resigned after the electoral debacle of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in the West Bengal assembly polls. Her exit brings down the TMC’s strength in the Rajya Sabha to nine.
Three members, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik, resigned from the Upper House in June and joined the BJP in Kolkata on July 9. They were fielded from these seats in West Bengal for the July 24 by-polls and are expected to return as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates after the bypolls in West Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}Three members, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik, resigned from the Upper House in June and joined the BJP in Kolkata on July 9. They were fielded from these seats in West Bengal for the July 24 by-polls and are expected to return as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates after the bypolls in West Bengal.
{{/usCountry}}Both factions of the TMC have decided not to contest the Rajya Sabha elections.
Mallick’s resignation came a day after Mamata Banerjee's close aide and Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra resigned from all party posts and joined the rebel group of legislators led by Ritabrata Banerjee. This has increased the rebels' strength in the assembly to more than 60.
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Separately, 20 of the party’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs have decided to merge with the NCPI and aligned themselves with the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Koel Mallick was among the four candidates named by TMC on February 27 for the Rajya Sabha elections, apart from former state director general of police Rajeev Kumar, Supreme Court lawyer Menaka Guruswamy and former minister Babul Supriyo.
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