Mamata has outsourced TMC: Dinesh Trivedi
Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi, who resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat on Friday, is now likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, sources have said. Trivedi's resignation comes just a couple of months before the assembly polls in West Bengal, when he said he feels suffocated in the party which is "no longer in hands of" its supremo Mamata Banerjee. Speaking exclusively to India TV, Dinesh Trivedi today said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has outsourced TMC.
Trivedi, who represented West Bengal in Rajya Sabha for the third time and was a former railway minister, announced his resignation in the house during a debate on the Union Budget, saying he cannot speak about the violence in his state.
He handed over his resignation to Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and it has been accepted. He explained to Naidu that he resigned of his own will and there is no pressure on him to do so.
Minutes after his resignation, BJP general secretary and party's West Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya said Trivedi is welcome in the party.
Assembly elections in West Bengal are due in April-May.
Announcing his resignation, Trivedi said, "If you sit here quietly and cannot do anything, then it is better that you resign from here and go to the land of Bengal and be with people. What I mean to say is the way violence is taking place in our state. Sitting here, I am feeling perplexed as to what should I do."
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP said he is unable to bear various incidents that are happening in West Bengal.
"I am grateful to my party that it has sent me here, but now I feel a little suffocated. We are unable to do anything and there is an atrocity (going on). My voice of conscience is saying what Swami Vivekananda used to say -- arise, awake and not stop till the goal is reached," Trivedi said while announcing his resignation from the House.
Talking to reporters after submitting his resignation, Trivedi said, "TMC is no longer in Mamata Banerjee's hands. It has been taken over by a corporate professional, who doesn't understand politics. And there is no forum within the party to air our views."
Trivedi further said he was daily asked to abuse the prime minister and that is not his value system.
Trivedi had endorsed Modi's Lok Sabha speech on Twitter, saying "I am personally in agreement with this. The way forward is to let our young talented mind innovate, create and distribute wealth. Pay Govt levies, create jobs. For that, our Govt officers (babus) too, need to encourage the youth."
He was trolled for his tweet with many apprehending that he may switch from the party.
TMC Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said Trivedi is "ungrateful" and has betrayed the trust of the masses.
"For the last so many years he (Trivedi) did not say anything. Now all of a sudden just months before the state assembly poll he has complaints. This shows his true colours," Ray said.
