Kolkata/New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday resigned as Lok Sabha member, days after winning the Bhowanipore assembly by-polls to make her maiden entry into the state legislature.
"She has sent her resignation letter through me. I have handed it over to Lok Sabha Speaker (Meira Kumar) today (Saturday)," Trinamool Congress general secretary and union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy told media persons in New Delhi.
The Trinamool Congress, the second largest constituent of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, will now have 18 Lok Sabha members.
Asked about Meira Kumar's response, Roy said: "She told me she was both happy and sad. She was sad because she would lose a colourful member. At the same time she was happy because Mamata has taken over the charge of a problematic state like West Bengal".
Banerjee, who had won the Kolkata South lok Sabha seat in 2009, won the Bhowanipore seat Sep 28 with a huge margin of 54,213 votes over the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) nominee Nandini Mukherjee.
Banerjee had not contested the April-may assembly polls, saying she wanted to campaign across the state to end the 34-year rule of the Left Front.
Banerjee won her first Lok Sabha election in 1984 by suprising CPI-M veteran Somnath Chatterjee in the Jadavpore constituency.
Five years later, she lost to CPI-M's Malini Bhattacharya from the same seat, but returned to the lower house of parliament in 1991 from Kolkata South by defeating sitting CPI-M member Biplab Dasgupta.
Since then, the voters of Kolkata South have always voted for Banerjee.
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