Hours after actor-politician Koel Mallick quit the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Kalighat faction of the party suffered another setback as Manish Gupta announced his resignation on Thursday.
The resignation comes days ahead of the July 21 event, TMC’s biggest political show in recent times, which will be held in a downsized scale this year, after the party’s poll debacle in the assembly elections.
Gupta got embroiled in controversy way back in July 21, 1993. He is believed to have ordered the cops to fire at Youth Congress protesters during the Mahakaran Abhiyan which subsequntly led to the death of 13 workers.
However, after Mamata Banerjee came to power in Bengal in 2011, Gupta, who had served as the Home Secretary of the Left Front government, was inducted within the TMC, got elected as an MLA, as well as made his way to be a cabinet minister.
Announcing his resignation on Thursday, Gupta said, “Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari is a skilled administrator, a popular leader, and he will take the state to great heights. I have nothing more to do in this party (TMC). So without wasting time unnecessarily, I have chosen to quit. I will definitely send my resignation letter to Mamata Banerjee later.”
Several leaders within the ranks of the TMC, had questioned Gupta’s induction into the party, with many finding it difficult to make out whether the former civil servant was an asset or a burden to the organisation.
TMC Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar has questioned why Gupta was inducted into the party without carrying out any investigation into the death of 13 martyrs in the firing ordered by him during the Mahakaran Abhiyan protest 33 years ago.
Dastidar has also mentioned that he will write a letter to Suvendu Adhikari requesting hism to carry out a fresh investigation against Gupta.
The Congress party has also demanded a fresh investigation into Gupta’s role in the mega rally in 1993.