Thaindian News

Kolkata, March 30 (IANS) Complaining of insult by a section of party leaders, singer-turned-Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Kabir Suman Monday night expressed a desire to resign from parliament and the party in an SMS to Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee.
“I am resigning my AITMC (All India Trinamool Congress) membership and Lok Sabha membership at once. Wish you good health. Good luck to you all,” Suman said in the SMS, which he also sent to Trinamool chief whip in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay, leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly Partha Chattopadhyay and union minister Mukul Roy.

Though Suman did not spell out any reason for his decision in the sms, he later said: “A section of Trinamool leaders had insulted me at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district today (Monday). Nobody has dared to insult me like this ever”.

Suman told Bengali television channel Star Ananda that for months he had been bearing insults heaped on him by Banerjee and other leaders. “But I can’t take it any more. I will go back to music, do riyaz and pen more songs supporting the people’s movement in Lalgarh”. Suman said he would despatch his resignation letters to the Lok Sabha Speaker and Banerjee Tuesday.

The SMS comes months after his frictions with the Trinamool which had prompted Banerjee to describe the popular poet-singer as a “guest” in the party.

Acknowledging receipt of the SMS, Bandopadhyay said: “His actions had put us in discomfort. We are now awaiting a formal letter of resignation from him”.

Suman, known for his Maoist sympathies, won the Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat in 2009, but drew Banerjee’s ire late last year for accusing a section of party leaders of misusing funds allocated for development work.

He also sharply criticised his party for not taking a softer line on the Left wing extremists and openly opposed the anti-Maoist Operation Greenhunt launched by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, of which the Trinamool is the second largest partner.

Some time back, the 60-year-old MP kicked up a fresh storm after composing and rendering a song eulogising arrested pro-Maoist People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) leader Chattradhar Mahato.

Banerjee immediately distanced her party from his stand on Mahato, saying the Trinamool did not endorse the singer’s view. She said Suman was an artist and an outsider in the party who was at liberty to express his personal opinion through music.

Suman changed the face of modern Bengali music in the 1990s with the “jeebonmukhi” genre, writing and singing about people and their lives.