The Trinamool Congress has lost another Rajya Sabha MP – the third in four days – as Prakash Chik Baraik wrote to Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan, resigning from the membership of the Upper House of Parliament. The party, which had a total of 13 MPs in Rajya Sabha, is now down to 10.
Sources have said at least three more Trinamool MPs are likely to resign from the House in the coming days.
“Respected Sir, I do hereby resign from the membership of , which may please be accepted with immediate effect. I convey my sincere gratitude to your Excellency, Hon’ble Deputy Chairman and all functionaries of Rajya Sabha Secretariat extending all help and cooperation during my tenure as a Member of the Rajya Sabha,” he wrote.
Baraik, a leader from North Bengal, is the third MP from the Trinamool Congress to give up the Rajya Sabha membership amid the party’s massive meltdown in the aftermath of its defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls last month.
Responding to media queries, Baraik said, “The mandate in West Bengal was not in favour of the Trinamool Congress. The Trinamool Congress did not win a single seat in my constituency. The mandate is in favour of the BJP. In view of the mandate and respecting the mandate, I thought I should resign from the Trinamool and from Rajya Sabha.” Asked about his future course of action, he said he has a future in politics. “Time will tell.”
Earlier, veteran leader gave up his Rajya Sabha seat and Trinamool membership on Monday. He told The Indian Express that his decision was “because of the citation prevailing in the party for a long time”. He said in a statement that the people of Bengal have given the BJP a huge mandate and “put an end to 15-year anarchical rule of the Trinamool Congress arising out of widespread unbridled corruption, atrocities committed against women, abysmal failure in the field of health, education, industry, law and order, employment, etc”. “In respectful acceptance of this historic verdict of the people, I have resigned today from the Rajya Sabha as a member and also from the primary membership of the All India Trinamool Congress,” he said.
The next to go was Trinamool’s Assam face, Sushmita Dev. Earlier with the Congress, Sushmita Dev joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party in 2021. Soon after resigning, she met Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader , triggering chatter about her next move.
Sushmita Dev refused to comment on Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and said the resignation is her “individual decision”. “I have my reasons and that’s why I have taken my decision,” she told the media. Asked if she will be joining the BJP, she said, “When I take a decision I will let you know… everyone has the right to change their mind, and to decide what kind of politics they want to do.”
The Trinamool is unravelling barely a month after its defeat in the Bengal polls. While three of its Rajya Sabha MPs have quit in four days, a rebel faction of its parliamentary contingent has claimed that 20 out of Trinamool’s 28 MPs in Lok Sabha want to form a separate bloc and align themselves with the NDA. Earlier, 58 out of the party’s 80 MLAs defied the leadership’s choice for the Leader of the Opposition in Assembly.
