Trinamool Congress leader Rajib Banerjee on Friday broke down in tears at the gate of Raj Bhavan in Kolkata after resigning as forest minister of West Bengal. He was speaking with mediapersons after meeting Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
Rajib Banerjee, a senior leader from Howrah and MLA from Domjur, said he had set his mind two-and-half years back to resign as cabinet minister.
"But chief minister [Mamata Banerjee] restrained me and gave some other organisational work as well," said he.
Criticising the chief minister, Rajib Banerjee said in 2018 he was removed from the post of irrigation department as minister in charge without even being made aware of it.
"Cabinet portfolios allocation is sole discretion of chief minister. But I expected that she would call me to inform before moving me to some other department. That is the courtesy from a CM to be shown to his or her cabinet colleague. I knew about my change of portfolio from breaking news of tv channels,” Rajib said.
Calling it as the most unfortunate day in his life, Rajib Banerjee broke down and said, “I am extremely unhappy to think of this day that I would have to take such hard decision. I was relentlessly insulted."
Rajib Banerjee is all set to join the BJP as Union Home Minister Amit Shah is holding a big joining rally in Domjur, the former’s constituency.
Large number of TMC leaders are scheduled to join the BJP on that day.
Rajib Banerjee is yet to resign from the TMC. He did not reveal whether he would join BJP. He also did not mention whether he would retain his MLA seat or not. He only indicated his switch by saying, "I would work from a new platform."
The BJP has officially not said anything about inducting Rajib Banerjee.
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Kailash Vijayavargiya, BJP minder in Bengal, said, "None can stay in TMC. It is suffocating for all of them."
Rajib Banerjee is the fourth minister to quit the Mamata cabinet. The others were Sovon Chatterjee, Suvendu Adhikari and Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
Rajib Banerjee handed over his resignation letter to Mamata Banerjee herself. He did not spell out what transpired between him and the chief minister. But sources said Mamata tried to convince him against quitting, but the minister was unfazed.