TMC crumbles: Actor-politician Koel Mallick resigns from Rajya Sabha

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) was hit by another resignation from its Rajya Sabha ranks on Thursday as popular Tollywood actor and Rajya Sabha MP Koel Mallick stepped down from the Upper House.

Koel Mallick’s resignation comes after days of speculation in political circles that the celebrated Tollywood actor may call it quits any day.

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Mallick’s exit came at the back of a slew of resignations that have hit the TMC ranks in the last few weeks. The notable names who have tendered their resignations to the Rajya Sabha Chairperson include Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and most recently Prakash Chik Baraik.

With the current storm of resignations, the TMC has got reduced from its strength of 13 seats to just nine in the Rajya Sabha. However, speculations are on that the party may suffer further resignations this week.

The TMC rebel bloc at the parliamentary level led by Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has already extended its support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. Dastidar has claimed that she has the support of 20 MPs.

Ritabrata Banerjee, the leader of the rebel MLAs bloc in the West Bengal Assembly who was recently recognised as the Leader of the Opposition by the Speaker, claimed that his camp now had the support of 64 MLAs, up from the 58 who had initially signed their letter of support. Banerjee even claimed that the legislators supporting him were preparing to submit a formal letter to the Speaker to strengthen their position.