Silbhadra Dutta, the Trinamool Congress MLA from Barrackpore constituency, has resigned from all party posts, media reports said on Friday. The move comes a day after Suvendu Adhikari, one of the closest aides of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, formally quit the party.
In recent weeks, there had been rumours Dutta could leave the party. Last week, Dutta, reportedly, met senior BJP leader Mukul Roy. Dutta had been upset with the party leadership, according to reports. Dutta was peeved with political strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been involved in planning the party's electoral strategy. PTI reported on December 2 that Dutta had refused to meet members of Kishor's organisation. Dutta is a two-time MLA.
On Thursday, in addition to Adhikari, TMC MLA Jitendra Tiwari resigned from his post as chief of the administrative board of Asansol Municipal Corporation. Tiwari had recently complained that the Mamata Banerjee government was depriving Asansol of Central funds. In addition, two more TMC leaders—vice-president of Paschim Bardhaman Abhijit Acharya and chairman of SBSTC Diptangshu Choudhury—have quit the party.
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Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee has called for an emergency meeting of the TMC leadership on Friday. The meeting assumes significance amid the high-profile departures.
Adhikari and the other former TMC leaders could join the BJP during the visit of Home Minister Amit Shah that will start on Saturday.
