Key Mamata Banerjee aid and Bengal Fire and Emergency Services and Housing Department Minister Sovan Chatterjee on Tuesday resigned from his posts for personal reasons, sources at State secretariat Nabanna said adding Chatterjee was also likely to resign as Kolkata’s Mayor following instructions from the Chief Minister.
The resignation comes following months of widening distance between the Trinamool Congress chief and the Minister who was allegedly been so “pre-occupied” with his personal issues that he was unable to discharge his official responsibilities.
The ex-Minister-cum-Mayor who was entangled in a marital suit with his wife Ratna Chatterjee had earlier been relieved of his key organisational posts in the party. He was divested from the post of Trinamool Congress district president of South 24 Parganas and Kolkata.
The Minister who was on Tuesday seen being rebuked by the Chief Minister at a public programme of Fire Department and the State Assembly tendered his resignation hours later expressing his inability to discharge his responsibility on account of personal grounds.
Banerjee reportedly pulled up the Minister for failing to discharge his duties properly, sources said adding the Minister subsequently went to the Chief Minister’s cabin and offered to tender his resignation. He submitted his resignation with Gautam Sanyal Principal secretary to the Chief Minister which was summarily accepted and forwarded to the Governor.
No official press release was released from either the Government or the Trinamool Congress party.
“He should immediately go and apologise before the Chief Minister and get her political career back or else he is doomed,” said his estranged wife Ratna Chatterjee who had earlier charged the Mayor with “extra-marital” affairs.
“Doom starts the day when a person gets entangled with a woman outside his marriage,” Ratna said.
Meanwhile, the State BJP leadership reacted in a guarded manner saying the saffron outfit was not interested in affairs of other parties. “Our party is not interested in the affairs of any other outfit. But if any dedicated worker of some other party wants to join us in our struggle against the misrule perpetrated by this Government then one is welcome to do so,” said a senior State BJP leader.