Trinamool Congress MP Koel Mallick on Thursday resigned from the Rajya Sabha, The Indian Express reported.
The actor-politician is the fourth TMC Rajya Sabha MP to have quit after the party lost the West Bengal Assembly elections to the Bharatiya Janata Party in May.
Shortly after resigning, Mallick met Union minister and BJP leader Bhupender Yadav at his home in Delhi, leading to speculation that she may join the Hindutva party.
In her resignation letter to Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, Mallick did not state any reason for resigning as a Rajya Sabha MP, The Hindu reported.
With this, the Trinamool Congress’ strength in the Upper House of Parliament fell to nine from what was 13 in May.
In June, three party MPs – Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik – resigned from the Rajya Sabha. They joined the BJP on July 9, and the party nominated them for the House hours later.
The TMC has been grappling with factionalism after its loss in the Assembly polls in May.
On June 14, a delegation of 20 TMC Lok Sabha MPs met Speaker Om Birla and requested that their group be merged with the Tripura-based Nationalist Citizens’ Party, which is a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote to Birla on June 19, demanding that the rebel MPs be disqualified.
On June…
