TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi Resigns From RS; Says ‘Suffocated’ in Party

Trivedi announced his decision at a speech in the Rajya Sabha on 12 February.

Dinesh Trivedi, member of Trinamool Congress and former Rajya Sabha MP

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Trinamool Congress (TMC) member and former railway minister, Dinesh Trivedi, resigned as Member of Parliament from the Rajya Sabha on 12 February.

Trivedi announced his resignation during a speech in the Upper House. He is presently the President of the Trinamool's Hindi Cell and was inducted into the Rajya Sabha after losing the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal's Barrackpore constituency to the BJP's Arjun Singh.

"I am resigning from the Rajya Sabha today. There is violence happening in my state. We cannot speak anything here," said the MP in Rajya Sabha.

"Grateful to my party that they've sent me here. I'm feeling suffocated that we're not able to do anything over the violence in the state. My soul tells me that if you can't do anything sitting here, then you must resign. I will continue to work for people of Bengal," he added.

"It was my inner voice, I couldn’t have been sitting in Parliament as a mute spectator over what is going on, especially in Bengal. There was no forum where I could have raised my voice; I would have done injustice to Bengal," Trivedi later told news agency, ANI.

"I am not alone, if you ask the people in the party they feel the same. We had joined the party by looking at Mamata Banerjee but now it’s no longer her party," he added.

“There comes a moment in every human’s life when they have to make a decision after a long contemplation. When there’s a lot of violence and corruption. I’ve always raised my voice against violence. What I’m saying today isn’t new. Where should I raise my voice? Nobody has time. When party goes into the hands of a corporate professional, he runs the party. Somebody who doesn’t understand the ABC of politics becomes our leader. What would someone do in this situation?”

Dinesh Trivedi to ANI

Sources in the Trinamool say that Trivedi's dramatic resignation at the Rajya Sabha came as a surprise. However, he's known to have been unhappy with poll strategist Prashant Kishor's political consultancy, the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), running the show in the party before the upcoming elections.

"Trinamool means grassroots. This will give us an opportunity to send a ‘grassroots’ worker of ours soon to the Rajya Sabha," said Trinamool's chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, Sukhendu Shekhar Roy.

"Dinesh Trivedi did not discuss issues plaguing him with West Bengal Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee before his resignation in Rajya Sabha," said party spokesperson Vivek Gupta to PTI.

"Any person is good and honest in Bengal politics is not respected in the TMC and they can't stay in the party. Because of the aunt-nephew combo, no one can work in the party. I met Trivedi at an airport a year ago when he was saying that the state of the party was very bad. We haven't discussed anything with him, but he's welcome in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)," said the BJP's Bengal minder and general secretary, Kailash Vijayvargiya.