TMC's Koel Mallick resigns from Rajya Sabha, becomes 4th MP to sever ties with Mamata

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Actor-turned-politician and Trinamool Congress MP Rukmini Mallick, popularly known as Koel Mallick, on Thursday resigned from the Rajya Sabha, the fourth TMC MP to do so ever since the Mamata Banerjee-led party was ousted from power in West Bengal.

Mallick met the Rajya Sabha chairman CP Radhakrishnan and put in her papers.

Her resignation dealt a fresh blow to the embattled TMC's strength in the Upper House, reducing it to the single-digit figure of nine, amid speculations that more from the party may follow suit and raising fresh questions on the party’s stability in Parliament.

"I do hereby resign from the membership of Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect," she said in her resignation letter.

"I convey my sincere gratitude to deputy chairman and all functionaries of Rajya Sabha Secretariat extending all help and cooperation during my tenure as member of Rajya Sabha," she wrote.

Mallick quit within a week following the stepping down of Rajya Sabha MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Deb and Prakash Chik Baraik in the wake of the TMC’s poll debacle in Bengal and the subsequent widespread rebellion in its ranks.

The last three MPs later jumped ship to the BJP and have filed their nominations for re-elections to the seats they left vacant which, so far, remain uncontested. All three are likely to be re-elected as BJP nominees to the Upper House if their candidature remains unchallenged by the Friday, 3 pm deadline.

Interestingly, following the footsteps of some of the earlier TMC rebels in Parliament, Mallick, too, met BJP leader Bhupendra Yadav at his Motilal Nehru Marg residence in Delhi after quitting as MP, fuelling the buzz on whether the actor would join the saffron party or choose to move over to the dissident MPs.

Mallick, one of TMC’s celebrity nominees to the Rajya Sabha, was picked by Mamata Banerjee in February this year. She had submitted her nomination on March 5, alongside Supreme Court lawyer Menaka Guruswamy and former IPS officer Rajeev Kumar, and took oath as an MP a month later.

She, however, did not attend a single sitting of the Parliament and was scheduled to participate in the proceedings of the House from the upcoming monsoon session scheduled to commence from July 20.

One of Bengal's best-known film actors and the daughter of veteran actor Ranjit Mallick, Koel entered active politics only a month before being nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Her nomination was viewed as part of Mamata Banerjee’s practice of bringing prominent public figures into Parliament.

“This is a new phase of my life, and I seek everyone’s blessings for the responsibility I am about to shoulder. Serving the people and the country was in my mind for some time and I am fortunate to have received that opportunity,” the actor had said after filing her nomination in March.

Earlier, in January – during a highly charged political atmosphere in Bengal – TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had visited the Mallick residence with his party’s performance report card, as part of his pre-poll celebrity outreach strategy.

“All I have to say is I like him very much,” Ranjit Mallick had certified Abhishek following a warm embrace of greeting.

Koel's departure adds to a succession of exits from the TMC’s parliamentary ranks, which political observers have linked to the broader churn within the party after its loss of power in Bengal.

Besides the Rajya Sabha, the party’s strength in Lok Sabha, too, has shrunk drastically to just eight members after 20 rebel MPs – most of whom like Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar were long-time associates of Banerjee – broke away from the TMC to merge with the lesser-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and pledged support to the BJP-led NDA.

Closer home, the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction of the party has escalated the battle for Trinamool's identity by consolidating rebel ranks, inducting senior leaders, and pressing his claim as the party's legitimate leadership.

The growing defections, which include top leaders and former Mamata-loyalists like Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas and Madan Mitra, have mounted pressure on the Banerjee-led "Kalighat Trinamool", turning the internal split into a direct political challenge.

“Koel Mallick is not an organic political leader. She gained lateral entry into politics in the wake of her proximity to the TMC’s top leadership. Shortly afterwards, we saw her getting nominated to Rajya Sabha. She was nowhere to be found after she became an MP," BJP Bengal president Samik Bhattacharya said, responding to the development.

“We are happy to see her resurface now and even she wants to sever ties with Mamata Banerjee,” he said.

Bhattacharya maintained that Mamata Banerjee’s party has lost all credibility among the people.

“The TMC, which was never a political party to begin with, is now finished. There’s no point in discussing a party that has lost all relevance among people. Those TMC leaders who are desperately trying to change shirts and whose backgrounds stand exposed, are also being closely monitored by the people,” he added.