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In a fresh blow to Mamata Banerjee, former West Bengal minister Madan Mitra has resigned from the All India Trinamool Congress and joined the rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee.
"... I had suggested to Abhishek Banerjee that he step aside for six months or a year. I told him, let us build the party, and then you can come back and take your seat but he refused. He said, I won't leave the party. The party is sinking, the boat has gone under. People are dying. Yet, the party decided or rather it was forced to accept that everyone else could die, but Abhishek had to be saved," Mitra, the MLA from the Kamarhati seat in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas, said. The MLA, considered a close aide of Mamata Banerjee, said, "It is deeply saddening. The party belongs to everyone, yet it seems to have been reduced to serving only Abhishek. I earnestly request Mamata ji to come let us view this as a marathon. We will surely cross paths along the way. Let us see which horse surges ahead. I have resigned from all the positions. Though I remain an MLA. I have left everything associated with Trinamool. That means I am no longer a Trinamool MLA in the functional sense..." Earlier this month, the former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that she would assume the role of the AITC party's state unit president and had inducted Madan Mitra and Kunal Ghosh into the state committee as General Secretaries. "As the AITC Chairperson, I announce that from today, I will also assume the role of the West Bengal state TMC President. Two more individuals - Madan Mitra and Kunal Ghosh - have been inducted into the party committee. Both have been appointed as General Secretaries of this committee," Banerjee said in a video message. The development comes amid an internal organisational rift within the party and after a rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee "took control" of the party headquarters. Mamata Banjeree-led Trinamool Congress had faced a debacle in the Assembly Elections (ANI)
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