BJP Lok Sabha MPs Jagannath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik on Wednesday tendered theirresignation as members of the West Bengal Assembly, to which they were elected in the recent polls. Sarkar and Pramanik, MPs of Ranaghat and Cooch Behar respectively,wenttotheAssembly and submitted their resignation letterstoSpeakerBimanBanerjee. Pramanik said that they are quitting as MLAs as perthe directive of the BJP leadership.

 

The BJP had also fielded two other Lok Sabha MPs - Union Minister Babul Supriyo and Locket Chatterjee and Rajya SabhamemberSwapanDasgupta buttheylosttheelection.TheBJP bagged 77 seats while the Trinamool Congress secured a landslide victory winning 213 of the 292 constituencies that went to polls. Election was countermanded in two seats due to the death of candidates. “The BJP has risen from just threeMLAs(inthe2016elections) to 77MLAs. In orderto addexperience in running the Government,someMPshadbeen fielded,” Sarkar said. However, the party could not achieve its goal of forming the GovernmentintheState, he said. SarkarassertedthattheirfightingtheAssemblyelectiondespite being MPs and then resigning after winning do not reflect any organisational weakness of the BJP.