Agartala: In a dramatic turn of events, Congress legislator Jitendra Sarkar on Monday resigned from the Tripura assembly and said he was rejoining the ruling CPI-M.


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Assembly Speaker Ramendra Chandra Debnath told IANS that Sarkar submitted his resignation to him and he had accepted it.


Immediately after his resignation, Sarkar told the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) that he would rejoin the party.


The development came amid reported efforts by the Trinamool Congress to split the Congress legislators' group.


A former veteran leader of the CPI-M and a former speaker of the Tripura assembly, Sarkar joined the Congress with his supporters in March 2010.


The 71-year-old Sarkar was elected to the assembly five times since 1978 from Teliamura constituency in west Tripura. But he was denied re-nomination by the CPI-M in 2008.


CPI-M state secretary Bijan Dhar told IANS: "Sarkar uphold political morality by joining his original party (CPI-M) instead of Trinamool."


In 2013, Sarkar was elected to the state assembly from Barjala constituency as a Congress candidate by a narrow margin.


"Of late the moves by Sudip Roy Barman and his followers to join the Trinamool Congress and the pulls and pressures from different factions had upset Sarkar," a close associate of Sarkar said.


Trinamool Congress Vice President Mukul Roy, who came here on a day's visit on Friday, met seven disgruntled Congress legislators including Sarkar -- just before the latter quit the assembly.


One of the seven, suspended Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman, recently resigned from the post protesting against the Congress-Left alliance in the recent West Bengal assembly elections.


The Congress has 10 legislators in the 60-member Tripura assembly.


Meanwhile, Tripura Congress state president Birajit Sinha on Monday urged the Speaker to act under the anti-defection law against six Congress legislators: Sudip Roy Barman, Ashish Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Pranjit Singha Roy, Jitendra Sarkar and Biswabandhu Sen.