Even as Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is scheduled to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in Delhi Friday regarding the split in the party, it faced fresh turbulence at home, with two former ministers resigning from key posts.
While senior TMC leader Jyotipriya Mallick stepped down from all party responsibilities, Gautam Deb, another ex-minister and Mayor of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation, also resigned from his post.
“I have been suffering from physical ailments for long now. My blood sugar levels are over 350 and my kidney has also been damaged. Doctors have advised complete rest and said I cannot take any mental or physical stress. In such a situation, I request you to relieve me from duties of national working committee,” Mullick said in his letter, loosely translated from Bengali.
The resignations come amid growing signs of cracks within the TMC, with reports of internal churn following the party’s performance in the Bengal Assembly polls.
Sources said Mallick, an MLA from Habra and a longtime aide to Mamata Banerjee, submitted his resignation letter to the party leadership, citing deteriorating health. He has held multiple key portfolios, including Food and Supplies (2011–2021), Forest Affairs, and Renewable Energy, and was recently inducted into the party’s national working committee.
Mallick was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2023 in connection with the alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam and was granted bail earlier this year. The party stood by him, and he was seen in a key position during the campaign for the Bengal Assembly polls held earlier this year.
Another resignation
In a parallel development, Deb, who previously served as a minister for North Bengal Development and Tourism under Mamata Banerjee, resigned as Siliguri mayor. Elected twice as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Dabgram-Phulbari constituency, he contested from the Siliguri Assembly seat this year but lost.
After Gautam Deb sent his resignation letter to the commissioner of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, Bengal Tourism Minister Shankar Ghosh alleged that “people were deprived of services during his mayorship”.
“There were frequent problems between the mayor and other elected members. I think it is the right decision. Now, I hope people will get proper services from the corporation,” said Ghosh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said resignations are nothing new in the TMC. “Anyone can resign, but their misdeeds will be accounted for through legal process,” said Sarkar.