Minister quits Mamata cabinet
A and Transport day after West Bengal IrKolkatarigation Minister Suvendu Adhikari was replaced from his post in the Hooghly River Bridge Commission (HRBC), the Trinamool Congress heavyweight from East Midnapore yesterday tendered his resignation from the Mamata Banerjee-led state cabinet.
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar wrote on Twitter that Adhikari’s resignation letter was sent to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and a copy was forwarded to the governor’s office as well.
“The issue will be addressed from the constitutional perspective,” Dhankhar wrote.
The state transport department on Thursday issued a circular stating that Adhikari was replaced by Trinamool Congress MP from Sreerampore in Kolkata’s adjoining Hooghly district Kalyan Banerjee as chairman of the Hooghly River Bridge Commission (HRBC) — a statutory body under the government of West Bengal.
The circular stated: “In exercise of the power conferred by sub-section (3) of section 3 of The Hooghly River Bridge Act, 1969 (West Bengal Act of XXXVI-1969), the governor is pleased to appoint MP Kalyan Banerjee as chairman of the HRBC with immediate effect and until further orders.”
Established in 1969, HRBC was mandated with the construction of the iconic Vidyasagar Setu, an engineering marvel over the river Hooghly that was inaugurated in 1992 as the longest cable-stayed bridge in the country.
Speculation was rife for the past few months over the political stand of the Trinamool heavyweight from East Midnapore and party insiders said Adhikari relations with the Trinamool supremo had gotten strained.
With the high-voltage West Bengal elections barely a few months away, he had also taken out of several public rallies in East Midnapore’s Khejuri under an apolitical banner this week.
Earlier Trinamool Congress legislator from Cooch Behar (south) Assembly constituency, Mihir Goswami, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi. “I have resigned from the Trinamool Congress and joined the BJP. I like to call it a fight against the immoral activities within the Trinamool and the injustice meted out to the people in the north Bengal districts. I look forward to a new political era in Bengal. I hope people of north Bengal would welcome the decision,” Goswami said.