TMC MP Mimi Chakraborty resigns, 'not accepted' by Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata/IBNS: Just months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, actress-Trinamool Congress MP Mimi Chakraborty on Thursday resigned after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee, who as per the parliamentarian's words refused to accept the resignation.
Mimi, an MP from West Bengal's Jadavpur constituency, went to the state assembly in Kolkata to submit her resignation.
Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, Mimi said, "Definitely I have resigned. My resignation is not accepted by the Chief Minister. She said 'she will take care of everything'. I have executed what I had in my mind.
"I have always maintained that I never joined politics to become a leader or a politician but a worker to serve people. But I can work for people even without politics. But Didi hasn't accepted and I don't know whether she will accept or not."
When pressed whether she had differences with the local leadership of the party, she said, "Yeah... with the local leadership."
Mimi was one of the TMC candidates to win by a record margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal from Jadavpur, the seat which brought Mamata to limelight in politics back in 1980s.
Earlier in an interview Anandabazar Online, Mimi had said, "I don't know whether I will contest or not. But given a choice, I would choose a life without politics."
The development comes just days after actor-turned TMC MP Dev sent mixed signals about his interest to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, after a meeting with Mamata and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Dev agreed to contest the elections and that too from his existing constituency Ghatal.
The 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which saw a meteoric rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state politics, saw TMC receiving a jolt with its tally going down from 34 to 22.
BJP, which has never ruled this state, won 18 seats.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are expected to be held in April-May.