Rajya Sabha TMC member Arpita Ghosh resigns, seeks to work for party

I would be more interested if I could be given a role to work for the party and in the state of West Bengal, even without being a member of Parliament.

Trinamool Congress MP Arpita Ghosh has resigned from the Rajya Sabha, and her resignation has been accepted by Chairman of the House and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, a notification from the Secretariat of the Upper House of Parliament said on Wednesday.

Ghosh said she now wants to work for the party organisation.

''Ms. Arpita Ghosh, an elected Member of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha), representing the State of West Bengal, resigned her seat in the Rajya Sabha, and her resignation has been accepted by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha w.e.f. the 15th September, 2021,'' the notification said.

Ghosh was among those suspended during the ruckus in the Upper House in the recently concluded Parliament session wherein both MPs and marshals were allegedly injured.

Sources indicated that her party prompted the move by Ghosh.

In a letter to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Ghosh thanked the party for giving her the opportunity to serve the people in various capacities.

''After our huge victory in the 2021 elections, I've been giving some serious thought about how I should continue to play a role in our party. I would be more interested if I could be given a role to work for the party and in the state of West Bengal, even without being a member of Parliament. ''My goal is clear: I wish to continue to serve the people of Bengal under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. I feel I would be in a better position to achieve my goals by resigning as a member of Rajya Sabha and directly and come and work directly in Bengal,'' she said in the letter.

According to a senior TMC leader, she is likely to play a role in the party organisation, especially in North Bengal.

Ghosh was elected to Rajya Sabha as a TMC candidate in March 2020 after she lost from Balurghat in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

Ghosh, a theatre artist, had her first brush with politics when she became a prominent face of the TMC's intellectual brigade during the Nandigram and Singur movement during 2006-2008.

In 2014, she won the Lok Sabha polls from Balurghat as a TMC candidate.

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