Senior Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari resigns as Bengal Transport minister

Adhikari tendered his resignation as the Bengal's Transport Minister on Friday.

Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari, who has been at odds with the party's top brass, tendered his resignation as the state's transport minister on Friday(November 27).

He sent his resignation letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.

"Today at 1:05 pm a resignation letter of Mr Suvendu Adhikari from office as minister addressed to Hon'ble Chief Minister has been forwarded to me. The issue will be addressed from a constitutional perspective," the governor tweeted.

The Bengal government had on Thursday appointed Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee as the new incumbent. Banerjee was appointed to the post with "immediate effect" in an order issued by the state transport department on Thursday evening. The development came just a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the TMC supremo, announced at a rally in Bankura that she is the sole observer of the party in all the districts of the state.


Sources close to, Adhikari, who has been maintaining a distance with the party and has not attended state cabinet meetings for some months, said he is unhappy with the organisational rejig effected a few months ago. They said he was not comfortable with the idea of scrapping the post of the district observer as he was party's in-charge in various districts.

Although both Adhikari and the TMC top brass remained tight-lipped about his resignation from the HRBC, a senior TMC leader said: "A war of nerves has begun between the leadership and Adhikari, who also holds charge of the irrigation department."

"Yesterday our party chief had said that she is the observer (of TMC) in various districts. It seems Suvendu did not like it and gave a reply through his resignation. Now it's a war of nerves. But we are hopeful of solving the situation," a senior TMC leader said on condition of anonymity.