In yet another blow for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) amid the ongoing crisis sparked by Ritabrata Banerjee and the 59 other rebel MLAs, Firhad Hakim on Wednesday resigned from the post of Kolkata Mayor.
Hakim, who is one of the party's most prominent leaders and a close aide of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, had earlier sought permission from her to resign from his post, citing difficulties in functioning after the BJP came to power in West Bengal.
"At that time, he was asked not to resign. However, he again requested Mamata Banerjee today to allow him to step down 'with honour', after which she agreed," TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told reporters.
Hakim had on Tuesday reportedly hinted at his resignation over not being able to do mayoral work due to it being done by the municipal commissioner.
“We work as a team. Whatever we do, we do together," he had said after the resignation of Mayor Councillor Tarak Singh on Tuesday, which sparked speculations of a possible exit, as per a Sangbad Pratidin report.
Lost out on Chief Whip
This setback also comes after Ritabrata Banerjee was appointed the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday by Speaker Rathindra Bose.
Ritabrata, who is one of the two newly elected TMC MLAs suspended over anti-party activities on Monday, is backed by a rebel bloc of 59 other MLAs. The new LoP has, however, also backed Mamata for the role of "chief advisor".
More importantly, Ritabrata's rise to power in the Assembly over Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay also led to Hakim losing out on the post of Chief Whip to Akhruzzaman.
Sandipan Saha (the other expelled TMC MLA), Javed Khan, Sabina Yasmin, and Seuli Saha were also appointed as the TMC's deputy leaders of opposition in the Assembly, overriding the party high command's choices of Ashima Patra and Nayana Bandopadhyay.
The party high command's choices are part of a controversy surrounding Abhishek Banerjee.
In fact, Sandipan Saha and the new LoP had been expelled for that very reason: filing a complaint against Abhishek Banerjee for allegedly forging signatures of some of the 80 MLAs—including their own—to appoint Chattopadhyay as the LoP and Hakim as the Chief Whip.
The new LoP has also declared that Abhishek Banerjee "has no connection with our legislative party”, criticising the national general secretary for calling him a thief, and declaring that he wouldn’t have gone into hiding for 26 days.
Ever since the complaint reached the ruling BJP administration, West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari promised "nobody who forged signatures would be spared".
