HOWRAH: Minister of state for youth services and sports and former Bengal skipper Laxmi Ratan Shukla quit all forms of politics on Tuesday, saying he wanted to concentrate more on sports, but did not resign as the Howrah (North) MLA.
He wrote a letter to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, apprising her of his decision. She responded, saying “there is nothing wrong when a sportsperson wants to return to sports,” and sent a recommendation to governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to “relieve” Shukla from the state cabinet. The party later replaced Shukla with Bhaskar Bhattacharya as its Howrah president.
In writing to Banerjee and not the governor, Shukla chose to steer clear of the path taken by his former cabinet colleague, Suvendu Adhikari. BJP, however, indicated that the party was ready to embrace the former all-rounder.
Banerjee stressed that there was “no room for any misunderstanding” over Shukla’s decision, adding, “Anyone can do this. Laxmi bhalo chhele (Laxmi is a good person). He has resigned. In his letter, he did not write about resigning as a minister. He wrote he wanted to quit all forms of politics for sports. He wants to spend more time in sports. He wants to continue as an MLA but wants to be relieved from everything else.... I want him to spend time in sports... he has our best wishes.”
“I took the right decision at the right time, due to personal reasons,” Shukla told TOI. Reported informal conversations with close aides, however, indicate that something like this was long brewing. He reportedly said he didn’t even get a single file to sign in the last four-and-a-half years as a minister; never got any administrative role; and that his recommendations as the party’s Howrah president went unheeded for the past six months.
Shukla reportedly told close aides that he was elected by people for five years and he wanted to respect the people’s mandate.
Shukla’s resignation — which coincided with state forest minister Rajib Banerjee skipping Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, the fourth cabinet meeting in which he remained absent — threatened to bring to the fore rumblings within the Howrah district Trinamool Congress.
In spite of what Banerjee, the party chief, said, senior minister and Howrah (South) MLA Arup Ray minced no words. “This is like a soldier deserting the battlefield,” the party heavyweight said, adding, “This is not the right time (for resigning). I met him at Pilkhana a few days back, and we spoke. He did mention he wanted to return to sports, but this isn’t the time.” Domjur MLA and minister for forest affairs, Rajib Banerjee, said he hadn’t spoken to Shukla in a while. “I will speak to him. The reasons (for his quitting) can only be explained by him.”
Shukla was made the party’s Howrah president replacing Ray, as the Trinamool tried to placate Banerjee. Three days after taking the party’s charge in Howrah, Shukla had spoken to both Ray and Banerjee and sent a fresh panel of district leaders, which was reportedly “ignored”, sources said.
Bally MLA Vaishali Dalmiya, however, was outspoken. “Laxmi is like a brother to me. In politics, we work for people, but we also have self-respect. This is being attacked. There are some negative-minded people. These people held some posts sometime, but their only work now is to ridicule, insult and stop party MLAs from working. This must stop. These people must be got rid of, like termites, or they will weaken the party,” she said. Former Howrah mayor Rathin Chakraborty, a doctor who entered politics, refused to see this incident in isolation. “It is our failure that we are unable to accommodate talents into politics,” he said.
Sensing the discomfiture, BJP waded into the Shukla-resignation episode from multiple fronts. “A senior cricketer resigned today; wickets are falling every day,” BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said. The party’s spokesperson, Shamik Bhattacharya, said: “Cricketers like Shukla are always welcome (to join BJP). People are leaving Trinamool Congress for it has outlived its ideology. It was a party born out of opposition to CPM. A decade on, it is no more relevant.”
Shukla had joined Trinamool in February 2016 and was pitched against BJP heavyweight Roopa Ganguly in Howrah (North), which has a substantial non-Bengali-speaking people. A lateral entrant to politics, Shukla was never allowed a toehold in the party’s Howrah leadership. Ray loyalists held on to the reins, a shackle which some leaders are trying to break away from. Incidentally, North Howrah is also seeing substantial BJP consolidation led by the Rai couple — Umesh, and his wife Gita.
(With inputs by Sukumar Mahato in Behrampore)