On a day when the TMC had already received twin blows, its leader Srinjoy Bose delivered a third one when he quit both the party and his Rajya Sabha seat after he was released on bail, amid speculation by the TMC that he may join the BJP.
Bose was the third member of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to be arrested by the CBI in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. He was arrested last November.
His resignation on Thursday is seen as a major setback to the TMC, after Tollywood actress Locket Chatterjee quit the party to join the BJP on the same day. Chatterjee was appointed a member of West Bengal's commission for women by none other than the state's chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
In another blow to Mamata Banerjee, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by the West Bengal government to monitor the CBI probe into the Saradha scam, reports The Indian Express.
After resigning, Bose said: "I had finally realised that politics is not my cup of tea. There has also been a lot of pressure from my family, especially my mother and wife which finally made me take this decision."
He was admitted to a hospital soon after his release.
Chatterjee cited growing corruption in the TMC that prompted her decision to quit the TMC. "If there is corruption, why should I take the burden of the corruption? I am not part of the sin."
Meanwhile, TMC members said that Bose along with his father and former TMC Rajya Sabha member Swapan Sadhan Bose could join the BJP.
"Srinjoy wanted to quit for some time now. He was never into active politics, neither did he work for the party. He was selected as an MP since he was the head of a newspaper," TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee was quoted as saying.
