India / TMC MLA Jitendra Tiwari quits party hours after Suvendu Adhikari

Kolkata: What happens with Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Suvendu Adhikari leaving his party with high speculations of jumping ship to BJP? All this while Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to visit Bengal on December 19th. The final nail of the coffin was Adhikari resigning as a member of the TMC on Thursday.

Chairman of Asansol Municipal Corporation and former Asansol Mayor Jitendra Tiwari too resigned from his post after openly speaking out against the party. While Tiwari has also returned the party car. He says that he will go back to his old profession of being an advocate as he believes the way the party wants him to move and work that is completely unacceptable to him. He will no longer be going for the meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Earlier in the day Tiwari told the media, “I have sent in my resignation letter to the party. Office hours are functional till 5:00pm, I hope it is accepted,” said Jitendra Tiwari.

With the exodus from the party and many speculated to switch to the saffron camp, it is TMC’s nightmare to retain its party leaders, more so because of the mass leader like Adhikari who has been a backbone of the anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram. The former Nandigram MLA is known for his grassroots organizational skills. Suvendu entered the West Bengal Assembly for the first time in 2006 but went on to win the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat in 2009 and again in 2014. He joined Mamata’s cabinet in 2016 after quitting Parliament and became a minister.

With Adhikari’s departure, the fate of more than 30 Assembly seats will not be in TMC’s favour with his mass appeal making things difficult for the TMC. While the BJP is having a field day, the TMC has acknowledged the situation, yet is fighting BJP tooth and nail to keep retain the seat of power.