KOLKATA: TMC MLA Banasri Maity resigned from the party's primary membership on Friday -- the fourth such exit in the past 48 hours.
The two-time MLA from Bengal's Kanthi Uttar constituency said she has sent her resignation to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee over email, triggering speculations that the legislator might join the long list of ruling party leaders who have either joined the BJP or have plans to do so soon.
"I do hereby tender my resignation from the primary membership of the All India Trinamool Congress as well as from each and every post or assignment given to me in connection with my membership of the party," Maity said in her letter.
The senior TMC leader from East Midnapore district is a loyalist of former TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, whose exit from the party prompted other leaders to follow suit.
Barrackpore MLA Silbhadra Dutta severed ties with the party on Friday morning.
Former minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, too, has announced that he would leave the TMC and join the BJP.
Banerjee Friday night termed the deserters as "baggage" for the party and said it is good that rotten elements are leaving on their own.
Banerjee held an internal meeting with a select group of leaders at her residence to take stock of the situation.
According to party sources, Banerjee told TMC leaders not to be "worried about the desertions" as the people of the state are with them.
"Our party supremo during the meeting told us not to be worried about the desertions as it is good that the rotten elements are leaving the party on their own. She said deserters were baggage for the party," a senior TMC leader said on condition of anonymity after the closed-door meet.
The meeting, which began at 7 pm, continued till 9.30 pm.
MLA Jitendra Tiwari Friday mellowed down his stance and expressed his desire to meet the party's top brass, after Union minister Babul Supriyo, speculating his entry into the BJP, said that he wasn't welcome in the saffron camp.
Tiwari, who was also the Asansol civic body chief, quit the TMC on Thursday, following in the footsteps of the party's former heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari.
Sources close to the leaders indicated that they may join the BJP soon, but things seems to have taken a different turn for Tiwari, as Supriyo and other BJP leaders opposed his entry into the saffron party.
Taking to Facebook, the Union minister said he would try his best to ensure that TMC leaders, who had in the past "tortured" grassroots BJP activists, do not get to join his party.
"What my Top Bosses decide is a different thing, but I will try my very best with all my might & honesty to ensure that NO #TMC leader who tormented, tortured (both Physically & Mentally) my grass root level BJP colleagues in Asansol, don't get an entry in BJP !! (sic)," he said.
Supriyo also dismissed rumours that he had "under- the-table dealings with TMC leaders of Asansol".
Reports suggested that BJP state president Dilip Ghosh has also come out in support of Supriyo.
Tiwari, on his part, said he has never expressed any desire to join the BJP.
"I had never said I would join the party (BJP). I want to meet TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and party leader Abhishek Banerjee. Let's see what happens," he said.
Tiwari resigned as the chairman of the Asansol Municipal Corporation's board of administrators and Paschim Bardhaman district chief on Thursday, days after he accused the West Bengal government of depriving the industrial town of central funds.
Sources had said he was supposed to meet Banerjee on Friday and talk about his grievances.
Shortly after resigning from the party, however, Tiwari had said he wouldn't meet Banerjee.
Hinting that a rebellion was brewing in the ruling party ahead of the assembly polls, Adhikari had on Wednesday night held a closed-door meeting with its disgruntled leaders, including Jitendra Tiwari and senior MP Sunil Mandal, in Paschim Bardhaman district.
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly are likely to be held in April-May next year.