Pavan Kumar Varma resigns from Trinamool, offers no reason

Kolkata, Aug 12 (IANS) Exactly nine months after joining Trinamool Congress from Janata Dal-United, former Rajya Sabha member, Pavan Kumar Varma, on Friday, announced his decision to resign from the Mamata Banerjee-led party.

He has announced his decision to quit the Trinamool through a Twitter message, where he did not cite any reason for his decision.

"Dear @MamataOfficial ji, Please accept my resignation for the @AITCofficial. I want to thank you for the warm welcome accorded to me, and for your affection and courtesies. T look forward to remaining in touch. Wishing you all the best, and with warm regards, Pavan K Varma," his Twitter message read.

The diplomat-turned-politician's joining the Trinamool in presence of the West Bengal Chief Minister, in November last year was perceived as an important development for Bengal's ruling party in its effort to make a footprint in national politics.

Besides being a former Rajya Sabha member, Varma, as a former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) has served as Indian Ambassador to Cyprus and Bhutan. He had also acted as the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs. He was also the chief advisor to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during his days with the JD-U.

In November last year, when he joined the Trinamool, he described Banerjee as the frontrunner in leading the opposition forces against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Officially, Trinamool had not given any comment on this development. However, a section of party insiders said he was unhappy with Trinamool on two counts.

The first issue was that after nominating Yashwant Sinha, a former bureaucrat-turned- politician and former Trinamool national Vice President, as the Presidential candidate, Banerjee's statement said that she could have considered supporting NDA candidate, Droupadi Murmu, had BJP informed her of its choice earlier.

The second issue, according to sources, was obviously on the issues of corruption which is the key headache for the party leadership. And now as Nitish Kumar has severed his ties with the BJP, speculations are also rife that Varma might reestablish his old ties with the JD-U.