Trinamool Congress quiet as kabir Suman set to quit

The resignation of Kabir Suman, the MP from Jadavpur, both from his party and Parliament, has put his party TMC in a quandary. Though Kabir Suman has lashed out at a section of TMC leadership accusing them of rampant corruption and nepotism, and lack of democracy in the party, there has not been any official reaction from the TMC so far. The TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who is in Delhi today, has evaded the issue by saying that it is an "internal matter of the party" and since Kabir Suman is a member of the Lok Sabha, the official reaction will be given by the leader of chief whip of TMC parliamentary party, Sudip Bandyopadhyay.

Last night, Kabir Suman has intimated his party leaders of his decision throudh an SMS text message. Sudip Bandyopadhay, one of the recipients of that message (the other three are Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy and Partha Chatterjee) said that the party is awaiting his formal resignation letter, after which it would decide on this. But leaders close to Mamata Banerjee indicate that she has made up her mind to accept his resignation.

Today, Kabir Suman has made it clear that his decision is final. He said, "I am not a slave of the TMC. There is no democracy in the party. I am too individualistic for this party and no matter what, I am not willing to surrender my freedom of expression."

The uneasiness in the TMC to respond to the charges is palpable. Today, when Kabir Suman was talking to mediapersons at Jadavpur, a group of TMC workers disrupted the meeting and there were heated exchanges between Kabir Suman and them. The TMC workers urged him to not to go to public against the party leadership. Kabir Suman said that despite his best efforts to make use of the MPLAD fund, some TMC leaders were trying to put all kinds of obstruction and some ohters were keen to manage the fund.

CAUSE OF DISCORD

# Interference by party in manner of MPLAD fund usage

# Resignation a culmination of months of tension between Suman and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee over his support of Naxals

# Refusal to support operations in Lalgarh, reiterates stand that torture is being perpetrated on people of Lalgarh

A few months back, he had raised this issue and protested the manner in which Shovan Chatterjee, a close associate of Mamata Banerjee tried to control Kabir Sunman's MPLAD fund. Kabir Suman did not spare Mamata Banerjee either. Without naming her, he said he felt humiliated and got angry when he was reminded by some that even to compose and sing songs on the ordeal of tribals of Aligarh, he needed prior permission from Mamata. In January this year, he wrote a number of songs and released an album Chhatradharer Gaan (Songs for Chhatradhar) which speaks of the ordeal of the tribals in Lalgarh.

He, however, claimed that Mahato had consulted party chief Mamata Banerjee during the tribal movement. “I didn't want the CPI(M) to take advantage of this.” However, the Trinamool chief in the past had denied links with Mahato.