Several former bureaucrats and councilors appointed by outgoing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have tendered their resignations following the defeat of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the West Bengal Assembly elections, even as the outgoing Chief Minister refused to step down.
The list includes former chief secretaries Alapan Bandyopadhyay, HK Dwivedi and Manoj Pant, as well as economist Abhiroop Sarkar.
“I was the chairman of West Bengal Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (WBIDC) and West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation (WBSIDC). I have already submitted my resignation to the secretaries of the departments concerned on Tuesday,” Sarkar told HT on Wednesday.
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The BJP swept the assembly elections held in April, winning 207 seats out of 294, while the TMC got only 80 seats.
“Though I am not a political person, the appointments were political appointments. I was appointed by the then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Since she lost, I have no moral right to continue,” said Sarkar, who has held several positions in committees, bodies and corporations in the past.
In May 2021, the Center issued a summons order to Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the then Chief Secretary of West Bengal, over his absence from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting in the wake of Cyclone Yas. The state government has been asked to relieve the IAS officer and direct him to report to North Block.
But Mamata Banerjee asked the Chief Minister to withdraw the order. She later informed that Bandyopadhyay had retired from the service and would not join Delhi, and instead appointed him as its chief advisor. He chose to retire on May 31 instead of availing the three-month extension granted by the state government.
“On Tuesday, I sent my resignation to the state chief secretary,” Bandyopadhyay said.
A few other former bureaucrats who retired as state chief ministers and were later appointed as advisors by Banerjee, including HK Dwivedi and Manoj Pant, have also sent in their resignations, sources in the secretariat said.
A former journalist who works as a media advisor in the state’s Department of Media and Cultural Affairs also resigned on Tuesday.
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The resignations come at a time when Mamata Banerjee has refused to step down from her post as Prime Minister, claiming that her party won the elections but the vote counting was rigged jointly by the Election Commission, the central paramilitary forces and the BJP.
Meanwhile, state Solicitor General Kishore Datta also submitted his resignation to West Bengal Governor RN Ravi. Datta has been serving as Solicitor General since December 2023, and previously held the position from 2017 to 2021.
“I sent my resignation to the governor on Tuesday,” Datta told HT.
“I have no comments on this,” TMC spokesperson Jai Prakash Majumdar said.
“Not everyone is as rude as her, so they have resigned. Mamata lost the election. The people of West Bengal have abandoned her. She has lost her land. But she has not resigned yet,” said Rahul Sinha, a senior BJP leader in the state.
