Chandan Mitra quits BJP, may join TMC

New Delhi, July 18

Two-term former Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra has resigned from the BJP amid speculation that he may join the Trinamool Congress.

“I have sent my resignation letter (to BJP),” Mitra, who is a senior journalist, told reporters here.

Though there was no word from him about his next move, sources said he may join the TMC with a leader from the regional party saying that Mitra is likely to be present at the party’s “martyrs’ day” rally in Kolkata on July 21.

Considered close to veteran BJP leader LK Advani, Mitra was nominated to the Upper House in 2003 when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre and again elected to the House in 2010 from Madhya Pradesh on the party’s ticket.

However, his political stock within the party plunged under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, and he was left with little organisational responsibility. He was fielded as the party’s candidate from Hooghly in West Bengal in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and stood a distant third. — PTI