Former MLA Ashish Das quits TMC, says party wants to use Tripura leaders as 'puppets'

Former MLA Ashish Das resigned from the Trinamool Congress. He accused the party of indulging in “groupism” and of using Tripura leaders as “puppets”.

Former Tripura MLA Ashish Das, who had quit the BJP to join the Trinamool Congress in October last year, resigned from the TMC. Ashish Das announced his resignation in Agartala on Thursday and accused the TMC of treating Tripura party leaders as “puppets”.

A former BJP legislator from Surma assembly constituency, Das had made a dramatic entry into the TMC seven months back after he shaved his head off as penance for working with the BJP at Kolkata’s Kalighat temple.

But the former MLA resigned from the TMC just seven months after joining the party.

Accusing the TMC leadership of using leaders from Tripura as "puppets", Ashish Das said “TMC could not use an MLA like me in Tripura. They do not consider the people of Tripura as humans. They want to use us as puppets.”

ALSO READ | Felt unwelcome in BJP, they didn’t let me work, says Arjun Singh after returning to TMC | Exclusive

“Abhishek Banerjee gave lofty speeches, but I want to ask him, he had said he will himself camp in Tripura to fight the battle, but where is he now? Wait and watch what happens to the TMC in the upcoming assembly polls. Even before coming to power, TMC is indulging in groupism,” he alleged.

Reacting to the development, Tripura TMC president Subal Bhowmik claimed that Ashish Das never took active participation in the daily affairs of the party.