Minister Suvendu Adhikari quits Mamta Cabinet

In West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, Transport Minister, has resigned from his post. The resignation letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was submitted on Friday morning. A copy was sent to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. He remains a Trinamool MLA as he has not resigned from the Assembly. Nevertheless, his resignation from the cabinet could be a precursor for his exit from the party.

It is said that Adhikari is unhappy with organisational decisions taken by the chief minister’s nephew and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee and election strategist Prashant Kishor who was roped in after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. The Nandigram MLA has made no secret of his discontent within the Trinamool for the past two to three months, skipping all party and cabinet meetings. And, at his numerous rallies, there were no Trinamool flags, banners or portraits of the Chief Minister.

Over the past two weeks the Trinamool deployed senior MP Sougata Roy to talk to Mr Adhikari. At least two meetings were held in Kolkata, but neither yielded a breakthrough.Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury declared the ruling party would now "crumble like a house of cards". Dilip Ghosh, chief of the BJP's state unit, said: "Trinamool Congress is not a party... it is a mela, a circus. There is an owner, a director-producer and the rest work as employees. Those who want to be self-respecting party workers are leaving."