Mamata Keeps Transport Ministry After Suvendu Adhikari Quits

Adhikari’s resignation was confirmed by Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari.

(Photo: IANS)

After West Bengal Irrigation and Transport Minister and once a major honcho in the ruling Trinamool Congress Suvendu Adhikari resigned from his position, CM Mamata Banerjee decided to keep the portfolio.

CM Banerjee called for an urgent meeting at her residence on Friday evening after Adhikari sent in his resignation to the West Bengal government and the Governor of West Bengal, Jagdeep Dhankhar.

The Governor confirmed his resignation via a tweet. "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 constitutional perspective," said Dhankhar in his tweet.

On 26 November, the former minister had resigned from his position as Chairman of the Hooghly River Bridge Commission (HRBC), a statutory body under the Transport Department.

Reacting to Adhikari's reaction, BJP State President Dilip Ghosh welcomed him into the party.

"The end of the Trinamool has begun. The Trinamool is not a party of bhadraloks. That is why, even before, many legislators and leaders have left the party. This will continue in the future. If they want to join the BJP, they're welcome", said Ghosh.

BJP National Secretary and co-incharge of West Bengal for the 2021 elections, Arvind Menon, also joined in.

"Another proof of growing discontent within TMC against the tyrannical and dictatorial policies of Mamata Banerjee. Suvendu Adhikari ,one of the most Senior leader in TMC and an important minister in West Bengal Government has Resigned from the Cabinet. (sic)", said Menon in a tweet.

Bengal Congress Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury declared the ruling party would now "crumble like a house of cards", reported NDTV.

The TMC, however, is denying that this may mean that Adhikari will jump ship to the BJP.

"He hasn’t resigned from the Party or from the MLA post. I can assure that he (Suvendu) is not going to Delhi. It is a lie that he will be meeting Mohan Bhagwat", said TMC MP Saugata Roy.

At Odds With the Party

Adhikari has been having a fallout with his party, the TMC, for months now and had recently started holding "independent" rallies for himself in an act of open rebellion against the party.

"I'm the primary member of a party. I'm a minister in the cabinet. The chief minister has made me a minister. She has not fired me and I have not left on my own," Adhikari said at one such rally last week.

Son of a Congressman, Shishir Adhikari, who has been with Mamata since she started the Trinamool, Suvendu started as a municipal councillor before being elected MLA from Dakshin Kanthi in East Midnapore in 2006.

In 2007, he was instrumental in the Nandigram anti-land acquisition protests, which ultimately was one of the key reasons for the downfall of the Left government in 2011.

Suvendu then went on to win the Lok Sabha elections from the Tamluk constituency in 2009, and was subsequently made in-charge of the Maoist riddle Jangalmahal area, then a CPI(M) bastion.

In 2011, when Mamata Banerjee beat the Left with a resounding margin, "Pahar hasche, Jangalmahal hasche" (Hills are smiling, Jangalmahal is smiling) became a Trinamool war cry. Clearly, Suvendu had delivered.

Thereafter, he also made significant inroads for the Trinamool in Malda and Murshidabad, increasing his clout and importance in the party.

However, tensions started simmering when Abhishek replaced Suvendu as the Trinamool Youth Wing President in 2015.

That notwithstanding, he was made minister after being elected from Nandigram in 2016, and was still known as one of Mamata's top lieutenants.

(With inputs from NDTV and ANI)

In July 2019, Abhishek Banerjee was instrumental in bringing onboard political strategist Prashant Kishor and his consultancy firm I-PAC to run the Trinamool's 2021 campaign.

This was an interesting time in Trinamool power politics. Mukul Roy had made his exit and after the Lok Sabha debacle, there was no clear number 2.

Kishor's "clean-up" drive within the party meant that dissenters who were looking for more power and status, like Suvendu, were increasingly sidelined. More organisational power within the party also slipped away.

In top-level meetings with party leaders conducted over the last week, sources say, that Suvendu has made his problems with Abhishek and Kishor running the party.

As he's finally resigned as minister, all eyes now on whether he is headed to the BJP, which has already promised to welcome him with open arms.