Former Bengal Forest Minister Rajib Banerjee has also resigned from the Trinamool (File)
Three hours after he resigned from the Bengal assembly as Trinamool MLA, Mamata Banerjee's former cabinet minister Rajib Banerjee resigned from the party as well.
Mr Banerjee met the Speaker at the Assembly and submitted his resignation as MLA at about 1.30 pm. At 4.30 pm he posted his resignation letter on Facebook.
"This chapter is over," Mr Banerjee said after resigning as Trinamool MLA.
He had resigned as Forest Minister from the Mamata Banerjee cabinet on January 22 and even burst into tears while leaving the Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to the governor.
As he left the Assembly this afternoon, Mr Banerjee was seen clutching a portrait of Mamata Banerjee that used to hang in his chamber. "I believe she is a mother figure for me... I am grateful to her (and) I will be grateful to her till my last day," Mr Banerjee said.
"Dramabaji," said Trinamool MP Sougata Roy. "There is no need for all this. Mamata Banerjee has said those who want to leave should do so as soon as possible."
Trinamool minister Firhad Hakim, said, "This is unfortunate. Why did he resigned now for being insulted, he says, two years ago. Some strings are attached somewhere."
Mr Banerjee has so far refused to confirm he is joining BJP.
But with his resignation first as MLA and then from Trinamool just two days before the Amit Shah rally at Howrah on Sunday, all doubts have been set to rest.
"I cannot work without a political party in this democratic parliamentary system. I have to be with a big political party if I want to help people," Mr Banerjee said, insisting that in the upcoming elections, he will contest from his existing constituency Domjur in Howrah district. .
Mr Banerjee is the third minister to resign from the cabinet and the second to quit the party too. Former transport minister Suvendu Adhikari joined BJP on December 19 along a dozen other MLAs from Trinamool, Congress and the Left and Trinamool MP Sudip Mondal.
Earlier this month, minister of state for sports, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, too resigned his post but has not quit the party yet.
Banerjee's record is unblemished. There are no CBI or ED cases against him unlike three other Trinamool imports into BJP -- Suvendu Adhikari, Sovan Chatterjee and Mukul Roy.
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.
Trinamool's Shantipur MLA Arindam Bhattacharya quit and joined BJP last week.
The Trinamool, which faces a challenge in its attempt to win re-election, says it is indifferent to the exits of senior leaders and dozens of junior members.
Officially, Mamata Banerjee has maintained that those wishing to quit the party are free to do so.
But the Trinamool did burn midnight oil in recent weeks to ward off two prominent exits - movie star-turned-Birbhum MP Shatabdi Roy and former football captain Prasun Banerjee, MP from Howrah. Both were placated after meetings with Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee.
"The Trinamool is like an ocean. A couple of mugs of water taken out of it make no difference, a couple of leaves falling off a giant tree don't matter. There will be new leaves," Partha Chatterjee, a senior party leader and minister, said last week.