2 Bengal BJP MPs to resign as MLAs, retain Parliament berths

KOLKATA: Two BJP MPs — Jagannath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik, elected to the Bengal assembly from Santipur and Dinhata, respectively — are likely to send their resignation to Speaker Biman Banerjee within two weeks. The BJP brass wants them to retain their Parliament membership, which will allow them to serve seven assembly segments instead of one each.
“The party has sent out a message that it wants me to retain the berth in Parliament. I have been a BJP soldier and will continue to be so,” Sarkar said on Tuesday. “We will submit our resignation within two weeks,” he added. Pramanik, who won by a wafer-thin margin of 57 votes from Cooch Behar’s Dinhata assembly seat, voiced similar sentiments.
The decision of the two BJP MPs will leave a total of five Bengal assembly seats vacant. Elections couldn’t be held in Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Jangipur seats owing to the death of candidates in the run-up to the polls while Trinamool candidate from Khardah (North 24 Parganas) Kajal Sinha passed away before he could celebrate his win.
The Election Commission will have to arrange for bypolls in Santipur and Dinhata once the BJP MPs surrender their assembly membership. They had conspicuously stayed away when 75 BJP MLAs were administered the oath of office and secrecy by the Speaker, leaving more bypoll options open for chief minister Mamata Banerjee to contest.
Bengal BJP leaders on Tuesday indicated that there had been discussions with the parliamentary board and it was in favour of retaining the two Lok Sabha seats of Ranaghat and Cooch Behar. Pramanik had won from Cooch Behar parliamentary constituency in 2019 and Sarkar from Ranaghat.
The BJP will appoint fresh observers for the state to allow its leaders to efficiently discharge their role in the opposition. “We will play a constructive role as the opposition party. We will cooperate when it comes to supporting the cause of development and lodge protests against policies that undermine popular interest,” state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said.