Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress Minister and Mamata Banerjee's close confidant Suvendu Adhikari on Friday resigned from the cabinet. He was the Transport Minister in the Mamata Banerjee-government.
Adhikari was in the news recently for not toeing the party line and also acting 'independently' in his turf, Purba Medinipur.
Read:| TMC's Suvendu Adhikari resigns as Hooghly commission chairman, builds suspense over future in party
Mamata had also taken a two-pronged approach in tackling her Minister. On one side she had sent in senior party MP Sougata Roy as an emissary to Adhikary and on the other hand, had handed over the responsibility of taking a tough stand against any dissidence to another party MP Kalyan Banerjee.
Adhikary has been receiving fillers from BJP leaders like Dilip Ghosh and Mukul Roy but has been non-committal.
Being the son of veteran Congress leader later turned TMC MP Sisir Adhikari, Suvendu had first won the assembly election in 2006 and was in the forefront during Nandigram and Khejuri incidents, which had rocked the 34 years left front rule in West Bengal.
Adhikari has also sent a copy of his resignation letter to West Bengal Governer Jagdeep Dhankar. He had yesterday quit as Chairman, Hooghly River Bridge Commission and Mamata were quick to handover the post to Kalyan.
Amid much speculation about the former minister's joining the saffron brigade, Adhikari is slated to reach Delhi on Saturday.
