Trinamool leader Rajib Banerjee, who last week quit Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's cabinet, today resigned from as the party's MLA representing the Domjur seat. Mr Banerjee is widely expected to join the opposition BJP on Sunday - in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah.
"I have resigned as the MLA of the state assembly. I submitted my resignation letter to the speaker. I thank my party supremo Mamata Banerjee for providing me the opportunity to serve the masses," Mr Banerjee, a two-time MLA, said.
"In the days to come, I would continue to serve the people of the Domjur constituency," he added.
Last week, after he resigned from the cabinet, the BJP issued a welcome mat for Mr Banerjee.
"He is like my younger brother and I am telling him BJP's doors are open," Arjun Singh, also a former Trinamool, and now a BJP MP, said.
The former Forest Minister, who dramatically burst into tears in front of the press after submitting his resignation letter to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, is set ti become the latest in a series of high-profile exits from the ruling Trinamool with just weeks to go for Assembly polls.
He is the third minister to resign his post in the last six weeks.
The first was Suvendu Adhikari, the former MLA from Nandigram and the man widely seen as instrumental in Mamata Banerjee's rise to power, and he has joined BJP.
The second was Laxmi Ratan Shukla, cricketer turned minister of state for sports. Mr Shukla, though, remains an MLA and member of the Trinamool.
The Trinamool, which faces a real challenge in its attempt to win re-election, has feigned indifference to the exits of senior leaders and dozens of junior members.
"The Trinamool is like an ocean. A couple of mugs of watfer taken out of it make no difference, a couple of leaves falling off a giant tree don't matter. There will be new leaves," party leader and minister Partha Chatterjee.
With input from PTI
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