Kolkata/New Delhi, June 8. Trinamool Congress suffered a major political blow on Monday when senior party leader and Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Shekhar Roy resigned from the primary membership of the party and also gave up the membership of the Upper House. Rai’s move, amid long-running internal dissent in the Mamata Banerjee-led party, indicates that the tussle within the organization has now reached the party’s parliamentary wing. Rai, one of the founding members of the Trinamool Congress and considered one of the party’s most prominent faces in Parliament, announced his resignation in the national capital at a time when the opposition alliance ‘India’ was scheduled to meet in a few hours.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also attended this meeting. Rai’s resignation comes days after the rebellion in the Trinamool Congress legislature party in West Bengal. Taking a stand different from the leadership line, 58 party MLAs had supported Ritabrata Banerjee for the post of Leader of Opposition and rejected the party’s official candidate Shobhandev Chattopadhyay. The rebellion ended with the Speaker of the Assembly recognizing Ritabrata as the Leader of the Opposition. This exposed deep fissures within the organization following the party’s defeat in the assembly elections and fueled fears that the unrest could be seen outside the assembly as well.
In his statement, Rai cited widespread corruption in governance and party organization and said that public anger against the previous tenure of the party has reached dangerous levels. The senior MP, who has been gradually distancing himself from the party leadership for the last one year, had also targeted Trinamool’s attitude in the RG Kar Hospital rape-murder case and had repeatedly expressed disagreement on this issue. In Delhi, Rai told reporters, “I had openly raised my voice on the RG Kar Hospital issue. After that, I gradually started being isolated in the party. My only mistake was that I demanded a departmental inquiry against some police officers, because I believed that they had a big role in destroying the evidence.”
Rai alleged that at that time an attempt was being made to save the culprits. He said that after that controversy, he had mentally decided to leave the party. He said, “That was the tipping point for me. I understood that I would not stay in the party much longer.” Rai also claimed that corruption had become rampant in many areas and public anger against the party had reached such a level that electoral defeat was certain. He demanded an investigation into the assets of Trinamool leaders holding important positions in the party at the national level and alleged that many honest people in the organization have been marginalized. “Not everyone in the party is dishonest. But many honest people have been sidelined,” he said. Political experts believe that the significance of this development increases because it happened in Delhi, while the top leadership of the party was busy consulting with allies in the meeting of the opposition alliance ‘India’.
After Rai’s resignation, Trinamool’s number of members in Rajya Sabha has reduced to 12. Rai, a constitutional expert, has been one of Trinamool’s key strategists in Parliament for years and is considered the party’s most effective voice on legislative and constitutional issues. When asked about future plans, Rai said that he has not yet decided to join any other party and hinted that he may also retire from active politics. He said, “I can completely stay away from politics.” The Trinamool leadership did not immediately react to Rai’s resignation. The rebellion in the Legislative Party has not been resolved yet, hence Rai’s resignation will deepen the questions on the unity of the party and will also increase the leadership’s concern that the turmoil in the Assembly might reach Delhi.
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