Kolkata, July 16 -- Actor-turned-politician Koel Mallick on Thursday finally resigned as a Rajya Sabha MP, fuelling fresh political speculation after meeting Union minister Bhupender Yadav in New Delhi soon after submitting her resignation.
Mallick met Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan and formally handed over her resignation letter, completing the process after having earlier sent it by email.
She had been nominated to the Upper House by the Trinamool Congress earlier this year but stepped down just three months and 10 days after taking office, without attending a single parliamentary session. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is scheduled to begin on Monday. With her resignation, the Trinamool's strength in the Rajya Sabha has come down to nine.
Her meeting with Yadav, who has played a key role in recent political realignments involving Trinamool leaders, intensified speculation over her next political move. Earlier this month, former Trinamool Rajya Sabha MPs Sukhendushekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik resigned from the party, joined the BJP and were subsequently renominated to the Upper House by the saffron party. However, there has been no announcement regarding Mallick's future political affiliation.
Reacting to the development, Trinamool chairperson Mamata Banerjee said she respected Mallick as an artiste and noted that the former MP had emailed her resignation before formally submitting it.
Referring to Mallick's meeting with the Union minister, Banerjee said: "I saw she went to resign after meeting a BJP leader."
She added: "Those who want to leave under BJP's pressure, police pressure, pressure to bow down, or pressure from ED, CBI, CID or local police officials, I request them to take their decision before July 21. But do not bring disrepute to the party we built."
State BJP president Shamik Bhattacharya said Mallick's resignation showed that "nobody wants to remain under the Trinamool's umbrella" and claimed the party was heading towards political extinction.
BJP chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said Mallick had resigned and met the party's central leadership, adding that the leadership would disclose its future plans at an appropriate time.
Senior Trinamool leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay alleged that the BJP was trying to increase its strength in the Rajya Sabha by engineering defections from the Trinamool. They claimed the saffron party was pursuing a strategy of inducting opposition MPs to secure a majority in the Upper House.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.