Heavyweight Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Rajib Banerjee, who has already resigned from the West Bengal cabinet, gave up his MLA post on Friday.
According to ABP Ananda, Banerjee could quit his TMC membership as well before Amit Shah steps in Kolkata later in the day. The Howrah MLA is rumoured to defect to BJP at Shah’s presence on Saturday.
Banerjee reached the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, where he wrote his resignation letter and handed it over to speaker Biman Banerjee.
However, he continued to sustain the rumours about his political future and said that he would clarify everything tomorrow.
Last week, he had resigned as the West Bengal Forest Minister. He did not cite any reason for his resignation but it came at a time when a string of senior TMC leaders and members subjected themselves to a mass defection drive to BJP.
In his resignation letter, forest minister Rajib Banerjee said, “I regret to inform you that I hereby tender my resignation from my Office as Cabinet Minister being in charge of Forest Department on today, i.e., On 22nd of January, 2021.”
He further said it has been a ‘great honour and privilege to serve the people of West Bengal. He said, “I heartily convey my gratitude for getting this opportunity. I have sent a copy of this to His Excellency, Governor of West Bengal for his necessary action. Kindly accept my resignation and oblige.”
Banerjee was the third minister to resign from the West Bengal government in a month. He had been skipping cabinet meetings and had expressed his dissent over the functioning of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party. He had complained about ‘some leaders in the Trinamool Congress (TMC)’ carrying out propaganda against him. Senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee had held two rounds of talks with him.
On January 16, in a Facebook live, Rajib had said, “I wanted to do some good work for the people but failed because of some persons in the party.”
In December, Suvendu Adhikari, who was considered a close aide to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, quit the government and joined the BJP along with a large number of other TMC leaders and workers.
On January 5, state sports minister Laxmi Ratan Shukla resigned saying he is ‘taking a break from politics.’