Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi resigns from Rajya Sabha
Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi on Thursday resigned from Rajya Sabha. Trivedi, considered a close confidant of Mamata Banerjee, had served as the Minister for Railways in the UPA II government.
“I am standing at that stage of my life where I have to decide what is important for me – my country, party or myself?” he said in the Rajya Sabha.
“The whole world witnessed the kind of work India did amid the coronavirus pandemic,” he said. “It is better to resign than to keep silent. I am feeling suffocated (in the party) and thus resigning from Rajya Sabha,” he said while speaking in Upper House.
“I am upset over the political violence in West Bengal,” he added.
Meanwhile, sources told India TV that Trivedi may join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) soon.
Trivedi represented Barrackpore constituency in the Lok Sabha between 2009 and 2019. He was a member of the Rajya Sabha for two separate terms — 1990-1996 and 2002 to 2008. He was elected to the Upper House again in April 2020.
Trivedi lost the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat in 2019 elections to BJP’s Arjun Singh by a margin of 14,857 votes. Singh bagged 4,72,994 votes, while Trivedi secured 4,58,137 votes.
Trivedi’s resignation comes just ahead of the Assembly polls in the eastern state. Bengal will go to polls in April-May later this year. The BJP is projecting itself as an alternative to Trinamool Congress which under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership is ruling the state since 2011.
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