Bengal sports minister quits, don’t take it negatively says Mamata

Kolkata, Jan 05: Sports minister of Bengal and Trinamool Congress leader, Laxmi Ratan Shukla has stepped down from his post.

Shukla, 39 quitting as Minister of State for Sports comes days after several TMC leaders joined the BJP.

Elections in the state are just months away. Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee said that anyone can resign. He said that he wants to give more time to sports and continue as MLA. Do not take in a negative way, she also said.

Meanwhile, PTI while quoting sources said that the former captain of the Bengal Ranji team, Shukla is the MLA of Howraw (Uttar) constituency. In his letter, he said that he wants to retire from politics. Shukla had joined the TMC before the last state elections in 2016 and won.

Suvendu Adhikari, a former cabinet minister in the Mamata Banerjee government, joined the BJP along with nine MLAs, five of them from the TMC, and a party MP during Union Home Minister Amit Shah's rally in Medinipur on December 19.

At a public rally Adhikari said that lotus will bloom in his family.

His father Sisir Adhikari and another brother Dibyendu are TMC MPs. They did not give any indication of leaving the TMC.

However, Dibyendu Adhikari on Wednesday termed the decision to remove Soumendu from the post of chairman of the board of administrator of Contai Municipality as "unfortunate, unexpected and unfair."
Soumendu Adhikari was the chairman of Contai Municipality till the term of the board expired in 2019.

He was then appointed as its administrator since elections were postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic situation.