Just a day after quitting as a member of Bengla’s Legislative Assembly, rebel leader Suvendu Adhikari resigned from the primary membership of the Trinamul Congress, sources said.
According to them, the senior leader wrote to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee apprising her of his decision to resign from the party's primary membership.
“I am writing to tender my resignation as a member of All India Trinamool Congress as well as from all other positions held by me in the party and its associate organs with immediate effect,” Adhikari wrote.
Ending his two-decade-old association with the party, the former TMC heavyweight thanked Mamata for the opportunities given to him, and said would he would always value the time he spent as its member.
Adhikari on Wednesday had stepped down from his role at the Bengal Legislative Assembly, a month after he quit as a state minister.
The 50-year-old, an MLA of Nandigram constituency in Purba Medinipur district, is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the state or earlier.
He had submitted his resignation letter as an MLA to the Assembly secretary, party sources said.
Adhikari is also scheduled to go to Delhi and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week, sources said.
“In Delhi, he (Adhikari) is likely to meet Modiji and Amitji, besides some others in the topmost tier of the BJP leadership. He might join the BJP in Delhi on Friday itself. Or, he might return with Amitji and join in the mega rally of the BJP in Midnapore on Saturday,” a source said on Tuesday, hours after the leader addressed yet another “apolitical” event at Haldia.
Hinting that a rebellion was brewing in the ruling party ahead of the assembly polls, Adhikari had on Wednesday night held a closed-door meeting with its disgruntled leaders, including Asansol civic body chief Jitendra Tiwari and senior MP Sunil Mandal, in Paschim Bardhaman district.
Tiwari, an MLA from Pandebeshwar constituency who recently slammed the state government for allegedly depriving the industrial town of central funds for "political reasons", resigned as the chairman of the Board of Administrators, Asansol Municipal Corporation, on Thursday afternoon.
Senior TMC leader Diptangshu Choudhary, who, too, was present at the meeting, has also tendered his resignation from the post of South Bengal State Transport Corporation chairman.
“The BJP is such a party that it lacks even the basic ethics and etiquette,” Mamata told a public meeting in Cooch Behar on Wednesday.
“It is surprising that they have called up even some of our senior leaders like (state president) Subrata Bakshi and (Birbhum chief) Anubrata Mondal. Leaders from Delhi had called them and had sought meetings with them. Both have declined…. This exposes the BJP’s desperation to engineer defections,” she added.
The Adhikari camp believes he holds sway in more than 70 Assembly seats. The BJP feels Adhikari can decisively influence the outcome in 40-odd seats. Mamata, according to sources close to her, does not think that number is over 20.