Trinamool Congress MLA from Bhabanipur Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay on Friday resigned from his seat to make way for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's re-election to the West Bengal Assembly.
Speaking to the media after resigning, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said that he was not under any pressure. "I am not under any pressure to resign. But I have come to know that Mamata Banerjee wants to contest from Bhabanipur. It is her seat, so she should contest from there only," the TMC MLA said.
Mamata Banerjee had lost the recently-concluded West Bengal
Assembly election from the Nandigram Assembly seat by a narrow margin to her protege-turned-nemesis Suvendhu Adhikari. Even as her party swept the polls by winning 213 out of 292 seats in the assembly, Mamata Banerjee lost by a mere margin of 1956 votes.
Despite the loss, Mamata Banerjee was elected as the leader of the Trinamool Congress legislature party and took oath as chief minister on May 5.
As per the Constitutional provision in such cases, the TMC chief has six months to get re-elected to the assembly or she risks losing her CM post.