Miffed Trinamool MLA hints at quitting politics

Kolkata, Oct 2 : The recently elected Trinamool Congress legislator in the bypolls to the Raiganj Assembly constituency in West Bengal, Krishna Kalyani has hinted at quitting politics after getting miffed over the functioning of the government.

In a significant social media post made on Tuesday night, Kalyani made it clear that his desire to quit politics was because of his differences with the District Magistrate in North Dinajpur over development activities in the area under his jurisdiction as an elected MLA.

In his social media post, he made a subtle observation about the Chief Minister directly interacting with the District Magistrate bypassing the legislator. He also claimed that despite this the fact that a legislator is a “public representative” and the District Magistrate is a “public servant” will never change.

“C.M to D.M .Who select C.M? Only M.L.A. I Krishna Kalyani, I am public representative. D.M is public servant. If the system will not change I will quit from Rajniti. I am much more comfortable in own source to serve the public,” Kalyani’s social media post read.

The growing differences between Kalyani and Trinamool Congress leadership surfaced last month when he resigned as the chairman of the 'Petitions Committee' of the state Assembly.

Kalyani was elected as a BJP legislator in 2021 from the Raiganj Assembly constituency. However, in the same year, he joined Trinamool Congress but retained his chair as the MLA from Raiganj.

Trinamool Congress nominated him as a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections from Raiganj Lok Sabha, following which he had to resign as the MLA. However, in the Lok Sabha elections, Kalyani was defeated by BJP’s Kartick Chandra Paul by a margin of over 68,000 votes.

Thereafter, the Trinamool Congress nominated him for the by-elections for the Raiganj Assembly constituency this year only, where he got elected by a margin of over 50,000 votes.

Kalyani is the second public representative of Trinamool Congress to rebel within a gap of a month.

Former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Jawhar Sircar, last month, resigned as the party Rajya Sabha member and also announced his decision to quit politics, as a protest against the ghastly rape and murder of a woman doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital as well as the general corruption in the West Bengal administration.