Former Bengal minister Manas Bhunia quits TMC

Kolkata: A former minister in the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, Manas Bhunia, on Saturday resigned from the Trinamool Congress, adding to the ever-growing crisis in the embattled party following its electoral drubbing in the assembly polls.

Bhunia told PTI that he sent a letter to party chairperson Mamata Banerjee, announcing his decision to quit all organisational posts, including as a member of the party.

Bhunia, a senior Congress leader who jumped ship to the TMC in 2016, was a seven-time MLA from the Sabang seat of Paschim Medinipur district. He had won the constituency six times as a candidate of the grand old party.


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"A politician remains a politician till the day he dies. I will continue to work for Sabang and the people of West Bengal till my last breath," Bhunia told PTI, but refused to speak on the reasons behind his quitting the TMC.

Asked if he was considering moving to the BJP, the veteran leader said, "I haven't considered that yet. I will decide later."

Although Bhunia won the 2021 polls from the Sabang seat on a TMC ticket, he was humbled in the 2026 edition of the polls in the same constituency by BJP's Amal Kumar Panda by a margin of over 11,000 votes.

He also contested the 2019 parliamentary polls from the Medinipur constituency but lost to Dilip Ghosh, then president of the BJP's West Bengal unit.

Bhunia had remained the TMC's Rajya Sabha MP till 2021, following which he was entrusted with the charge of the departments of Irrigation and Waterways, Small and Micro Industries and Textile in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet.