After Mamata Banerjee’s defeat, advisors to outgoing govt begin resigning

Following Trinamool Congress election defeat, several advisers to Mamata Banerjee resigned, including economist Abhirup Sarkar and former bureaucrats, amid her refusal to accept results and claims that many seats were “stolen” in West Bengal

Kolkata: With the Trinamool Congress losing elections, a series of resignations from advisory-post holders in the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal has begun. The flow of resignations from these advisery-post holders has begun despite the outgoing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s war cry on Tuesday that she would not send her resignation to Governor RN Ravi.

She has said that she felt that the defeat of her party in the state and her personal defeat at the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in South Kolkata was not a true reflection of public mandate, and around 100 seats have been ‘stolen’.

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The most significant resignation is that of the renowned economist, Abhirup Sarkar, who had simultaneously stepped down from his dual chairmanship of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation (WBSIDC). Confirming the development, an insider from the state secretariat of Nabanna said Sarkar had already sent his resignation through email communiqués.

At the same time, two retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, Alapan Bandopadhyay and HK Dwivedi, both being former West Bengal chief secretaries, have tendered their resignations as advisors to the outgoing CM Mamata Banerjee.

Although information surfaced that another former Chief Secretary, Manoj Pant, too has resigned from his chair as the principal secretary to the outgoing chief minister, there has been no confirmation either from Pant or anyone from the state secretariat. Earlier on Monday, the state’s erstwhile Advocate General Kishore Datta had resigned.

Since Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister in 2011, which marked the beginning of the 34-year-long Left Front regime and the beginning of the 15-year-long Trinamool Congress regime, the trend of retaining retiring bureaucrats and cops in advisory posts in their last drawn official salaries had started.

Mamata Banerjee’s logic was that the long experience of these bureaucrats and police officers was necessary for her to utilise in running her administration smoothly. However, the opposition parties, especially the BJP, had strongly opposed this trend of retaining bureaucrats and cops with such exorbitant salaries, even as the state government was unable to pay Dearness Allowances to state government at par with Central employees.

The BJP also alleged that the retention of the retired bureaucrats and cops with such exorbitant salaries was a kind of reward to them for doing all the “dirty” work for the outgoing Chief Minister during their service periods.