Veteran Trinamool Congress leader Sukhendu Sekhar Rai resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the party’s primary membership on Monday – and appeared set to enter the BJP – saying his break with the TMC had effectively ended on the day he demanded an internal probe into the role of police officers in the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder case. He said that he then found himself frozen by it.
He said he had become “increasingly isolated” within the party since he spoke publicly about the issue.
“My only mistake was that I called for an internal investigation against some police officers because I thought they had a major role in destroying evidence,” Rai told reporters in New Delhi. “That was the turning point. I realized that I would not stay in the party for long,” he said.
Rai, 77, a founding member of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and one of its most recognizable faces in Parliament, has distanced himself from the leadership for months over the issue, alleging that attempts had been made to protect those responsible in the case — the 2024 rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College that sparked weeks of protests across West Bengal.
He cites the BJP’s mandate
In a written statement on his parliamentary paper, Rai termed his departure out of respect for the voters, saying the people had handed over a mandate to the BJP “for the first time in the history of the state to put an end to the 15-year-old anarchic rule” of the TMC. He blamed this on “the spread of unbridled corruption and atrocities against women” and failures in health, education, industry and law and order.
He concluded his written statement with the Latin phrase “Vox populi, vox dei” – “The voice of the people is the voice of God.”
TMC’s crack reaches stable Parliament
The resignation, announced in the national capital hours before the India Caucus meeting to be attended by Mamata Banerjee, her nephew and TMC Secretary General Abhishek Banerjee, marks the first high-profile exit from the TMC’s parliamentary posts since the unrest that gripped the party began.
This has reduced the strength of the TMC in the Rajya Sabha to 12. The party has 28 MPs in the Lok Sabha.
The shake-up came days after an unprecedented revolt in the party’s legislative wing, with 58 TMC MLAs breaking ranks to support ousted rebel Ritabrata Banerjee to lead the opposition over the official nominee. The rebels have cited Abhishek’s superiority in the party, and his alleged preference for strategy firm I-PAC over party cadres, among the reasons that prompted them to break ranks to demand a “real TMC”.
“Not everyone in the party is dishonest. But many honest people have been sidelined,” said Ray, a constitutional expert long considered among the party’s leading parliamentary strategists.
He called for an audit of the assets of senior TMC leaders and, separately, demanded a forensic audit of procurement by every government hospital in the state over the past five years.
How RG Kar became a major factor
Returning to the RG Carr case, he said that it had drawn people with no prior political involvement onto the streets.
“People who had never joined a procession or a public meeting in their lives… Even they, including doctors, stayed in the streets all night,” he said.
He meets the BJP official
When asked about his plans, Rai said he had not yet decided to join another party and might stay away from public life. He said: “I may withdraw from politics permanently.”
Later in the day, he met senior BJP leaders, including Union Minister and BJP leader Bhupinder Yadav who served as the party’s central election in-charge in West Bengal.
The TMC leadership did not immediately respond, though Mamata Banerjee had said in the recent past that she could build the party anew, and those who want to exit can do as they please.
