As per the report, the reason behind Mitra's resignation was believed to have been unhappy with the functioning of the BJP party. The former Rajya Sabha MP made his displeasure evident on a number of occasions like with the way the party dealt with the issues such as increasing the MSP, mob lynching cases, women’s safety in the country and Kairana bypoll defeat.
Several other new faces joined TMC today, but none bigger than two-time Rajya Sabha lawmaker and former BJP leader Chandan Mitra. Besides, Mitra, the Congress MLAs Samar Mukherjee, Abu Taher, Sabina Yasmin and Akhruzzman also joined the TMC today. All of them joined the TMC at its annual Martyrs' Day rally.
Who is Chandan Mitra
• Chandan Mitra is one of the bigger names to distance itself with the BJP party.
• Mitra began his career as a journalist at The Statesman.
• He is currently the editor of The Pioneer newspaper in Delhi.
• Mitra was a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha from August 2003 to 2009.
• He was nominated to the Upper House when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre.
• In June 2010, BJP got him elected to the upper house from Madhya Pradesh. His term ended in 2016.
• Mitra also contested the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2016 but lost.
• He was fielded as the party's candidate from Hooghly in West Bengal in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and came a distant third.
• He was considered close to veteran BJP leader L K Advani.
• However, his political stock within the party plunged under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, and he was left with little organisational responsibility.
(With inputs from PTI)