NEW DELHI: In another jolt to the Trinamool Congress ahead of the upcoming West Bengal assembly polls, party's MP Dinesh Trivedi resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat on Friday.
"I am resigning from Rajya Sabha today. There is violence happening in my state. We cannot speak anything here." the TMC leader said while announcing his resignation on the floor of the Upper House.
"Grateful to my party that they've sent me here. I am feeling suffocated that we are not able to do anything over violence in the state. My soul tells me that if you cannot do anything sitting here, then you must resign. I will continue to work for people of West Bengal", Trivedi said.
"My voice of conscience is saying what Swami Vivekananda used to say -- arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached," Trivedi said.
Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh said there is a due process for resigning from the House and asked Trivedi to submit his resignation in writing to the chairman.
Reacting to Trivedi's resignation, TMC MP Sukhendu S Roy said his party will send "grassroot workers to Rajya Sabha soon".
"Trinamool means grassroots. This will give us an opportunity to send a grassroots worker of ours soon to the Rajya Sabha", Sukhendu told ANI.
Prior to Trivedi, a number of leaders have resigned from the party including Rajib Banerjee, Sovan Chaterjee, Suvendu Adhikari, and Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
While Banerjee, Chaterjee and Adhikari joined the Bhartiya Janata Party, Shukla has decided to take a break from politics and will complete his tenure as an MLA.
(With inputs from agencies)