TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray resigns as Rajya Sabha MP, quits party

Trinamool Congress leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray on Monday resigned as Rajya Sabha MP and quit the party, saying that he has accepted the mandate delivered by voters in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, PTI reported.

Ray said that the voters had “given huge mandate” to the Bharatiya Janata Party “to put an end to 15-year anarchical rule” of the TMC arising out of “widespread unbridled corruption, atrocities committed against women, abysmal failure in the field of health, education, industry, law and order, employment, etc”.

The new government had taken steps for the “overall development and reconstruction” of the state, he said.

Ray had become a Rajya Sabha member in 2011.

The BJP won 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly. A party or an alliance needs 148 seats in the Assembly to secure a majority. The TMC won 80 seats.

The TMC is facing internal divisions with expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee claiming that a group of 58 of the 80 legislators had been recognised as the party’s legislature wing in the Assembly.

The stand taken by the 58 MLAs is being viewed as a challenge to TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who is supporting Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Opposition leader in the Assembly.

On Wednesday, the TMC dissolved all its committees and organisational units in the state, saying it would undertake...

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