TMC MP Jawhar Sircar quits Rajya Sabha over RG Kar case; Writes to Mamata

In a letter to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress leader Jawhar Sircar wrote that he would resign from the Rajya Sabha in the wake of Kolkata doctor's rape and murder. He also exhorted the TMC chief to “save the state”. The politician said he would go to Delhi and submit his resignation to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

In the letter, he wrote that he had thought Mamata Banerjee would interfere with the "old Mamata style". “I thought you would interfere in the ongoing movement in the old Mamata style, but I did not see it," he said. He wrote in the letter that the ongoing agitation of doctors was against the "unchecked overbearing attitude of the favored few and the corrupt".

He claimed there was angst and a lack of confidence in people against the government. “I have suffered patiently for a month since the terrible incident at RG Kar Hospital and was hoping for your direct intervention with the agitating junior doctors, in the old style of Mamata Banerjee. It has not happened and whatever punitive steps the government is taking now are too little and quite late,” the letter read.

He said normalcy in the state would have returned earlier had the government punished those guilty of taking improper administrative actions. He said he would "disassociate myself totally from politics" after his resignation.