Kolkata7 hours agoAuthor: Tirthankar Das
Veteran Trinamool Congress leader and Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra on Wednesday resigned from all organisational posts in the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress and joined the camp led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee.
Senior leader quits key organisational posts
Shortly after leaving his residence in the morning, Mitra drove himself to the West Bengal Assembly, where he met Ritabrata Banerjee in his office. Seated beside the Opposition leader, Mitra announced his decision to relinquish all party posts.
Poem explains personal turning point decision
Explaining his move, Mitra quoted a Bengali poem and said he had reached a stage in life where he had to decide “which bridge to cross and which not to.”
It is true that I am a Trinamool MLA. But I am not only a Trinamool MLA; I am an MLA of Bengal and a member of the Assembly. By resigning from all party posts, I am not resigning as an MLA. I have resigned from every organisational post that was assigned to me
Mitra alleged that the party’s decline was the result of excessive dependence on one individual.
Blames one leader for party decline
“When history is written about this period in Bengal, it will say that because of one person, a party that had won 213 seats was ruined,” he remarked, without naming anyone.
Asked which stage he would attend on July 21, when the two rival Trinamool factions are set to hold separate Martyrs’ Day programmes, Mitra said he remained a member of the All India Trinamool Congress.
All political maps in India still recognise the party as the AITC. The party has now split into two factions. I thank and respect Mamata Banerjee for standing by us for so many years, and we also tried to do our part. But from this moment, I resign as the National Committee Chief Whip, Working Committee member, General Secretary and from all other organisational posts in Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress,
he said.
July 21 rally choice sparks curiosity
Using a metaphor to describe his political shift, Mitra added,
I was in the Trinamool and I remain in the Trinamool. I have only moved from one room to another. One room may have had a comfortable bed, while the other has only a cot. I have chosen the cot.
His resignation comes amid an escalating split within the Trinamool Congress, with rival factions preparing to hold separate July 21 Martyrs’ Day rallies in Kolkata.
