In a major blow to the Trinamool Congress, its Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Srinjoy Bose has announced he is resigning from the party as well as the Upper House of Parliament.
Mr Bose, who had been arrested over his alleged involvement in the Saradha chit fund scam in November, was released on bail yesterday.
In a statement to the press, Mr Bose said that he had realised that "politics is not my cup of tea."
But just an hour after the news of his resignation became public, party Member of Parliament Derek O'Brien said in a statement that "Srinjoy has been under tremendous pressure from the party in power at the Centre."
His comment seems to be aimed at the BJP which, according to Trinamool sources, was pressurising Mr Bose to quit the party or face harsher interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI over the Saradha scam.
Trinamool sources also say that at the Trinamool Congress' core committee meeting in Kolkata on January 31, party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had mentioned that Mr Bose was under pressure from the BJP.
Ms Banerjee was also quoted as saying, by those present at the meeting, that her party's all India general secretary and MP Mukul Roy "is under pressure from the BJP via the CBI to either split the party or go to jail." Mr Roy had been questioned by the investigative agency over the scam for nearly five hours last week.
Ever since, speculation has been growing about an impending split in the Trinamool, though Mr Roy has said he is very much "a part and parcel" of the Trinamool Congress.