Big blow for TMC, as third MLA resigns from Mamata Banerjee's party

In yet another blow to West Bengal chief minister-Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) ahead of next year’s assembly elections, another MLA resigned from the party on Friday, news agency ANI has reported. Silbhadra Datta, TMC MLA from Barrackpore assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas, tendered his resignation from the party.Datta’s resignation comes just a day after another MLA, Jitendra Tiwari, resigned from the TMC. Also on Thursday, former minister and heavyweight leader Suvendu Adhikari, too, had resigned from Banerjee’s party. The two are among a host of TMC leaders who are allegedly in touch with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and are likely to join it in the next few days. 

Adhikari, in fact, is expected to join the BJP on Saturday, when Union home minister and former BJP president Amit Shah visits the poll-bound state. In his resignation letter, Dutta wrote, “I am tendering my resignation as a member of All India Trinamool Congress as well as from all others positions held by me in the party and its associate organisation with immediate effect.” Dutta had earlier refused to meet the party’s election strategist Prashant Kishore and his team. Adhikari’s resignation is likely to trigger an exodus from the TMC to the BJP at multiple levels across the state. The incident has triggered a tussle between the Centre, where the BJP is in power, and the Banerjee-led West Bengal government.