Further Setback For TMC As ‘Suffocated’ Dinesh Trivedi Resigns From Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: The topic of discussion in Rajya Sabha on Friday was the Union Budget 2021, which was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.

Out of the blue, Dinesh Trivedi — former Union Minister for Railways and Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha member — sprung a surprise and announced his resignation from the upper house of Parliament, taking pains to explain his decision.

It was another setback and a major embarrassment for Trinamool, ahead of assembly elections in West Bengal.

Trivedi, a two-time MP from Barrackpore who had been with TMC since 1998, said he had reached an inflection point and was “feeling suffocated.”

“Why do we come into politics? We come into politics for the country,” Trivedi said in the middle of discussion on Budget, explaining that he had to follow his conscience after looking at the “kind of violence taking place in his state.”

Trivedi added that he would continue to work for “Bengal and the country.”

Trivedi praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to speculation that he could soon be joining the BJP who are making a strong pitch to capture power in West Bengal.

A number of TMC leaders, including high-profile ones like Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, have already joined BJP ranks.