Mayawati's resignation from Rajya Sabha unlikely to be accepted as letter breaks parliamentary procedure

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati resigned from Parliament on Tuesday, hours after storming out of the Rajya Sabha over not being allowed time to complete her speech on alleged Dalit atrocities in Uttar Pradesh.

The resignation of Mayawati, a Dalit leader and a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, may not be accepted since it does not follow a prescribed format, but her move could give her a political point by projecting herself as a champion of the Dalit cause.

"Jab satta paksh mujhe apni baat rakhne ka bhi samay nahi de raha hai toh mera isteefa dena hi theek hai (If the ruling party is not going to allow me to speak, then it's better to resign)," ANI quoted Mayawati as saying shortly after she submitted her letter of resignation to the Rajya Sabha secretary general Shamsher Shariff's office at around 5pm.

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Mayawati's threat to quit Rajya Sabha means

The Rajya Sabha session began at 11am, and shortly afterwards Mayawati began speaking on atrocities against Dalits after being given 3 minutes to raise the issue. As she went past the scheduled time, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien stopped her and an angry Mayawati stormed out of the House threatening to resign.

In her 3-page resignation letter, she detailed the morning's incident as the reason for her decision, which technically is a breach of protocol. A parliamentarian cannot cite a motive or reason for quitting, parliamentary procedure dictates.

If people in power, the Bharatiya Janata Party or the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) does not allow me to speak in the interest of marginalised communities, then I can no longer continue in this Parliament, she said in the letter written in Hindi.