How Mamata always stays after 145;quitting146;

Even her most ardent admirers may not credit her with these qualities, but Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee has the uncanny knack...

Even her most ardent admirers may not credit her with these qualities, but Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee has the uncanny knack of drafting resignation letters that 8220;can8217;t be accepted8221;. For, everytime she 8220;quits8221; her South Calcutta Lok Sabha seat, her 8220;resignation8221; has some inherent lacunae. Obviously, therefore, she can have the cake and eat it too8212;hog the headlines and also ensure that her seat is safe.

Banerjee8217;s latest 8220;resignation letter8221;, dated November 10, is in fact addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with a copy marked to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee in which she seeks to 8220;tender8221; her resignation 8220;as a mark of protest8221; against what she calls a 8220;genocide8221; in West Bengal, Nandigram to be precise.

Lok Sabha rules stipulate: 8220;A member who desires to resign his seat in the House shall intimate in writing under his hand addressed to the Speaker, his intention to resign his seat in the House.8221; The format laid is: 8220;I hereby tender my resignation of my seat in the House with effect from8230;.8221; The Speaker is empowered to delete any extraneous matter in the letter. Besides, he has to be satisfied that the resignation is 8220;voluntary8221; and 8220;genuine.8221; Since Banerjee has addressed her resignation to the Prime Minister, it has no legal worth.

Banerjee had 8220;resigned8221; her seat in 2005 too in the midst of the heat generated by the scrapping of the IMDT Act by the Supreme Court. She had thrown a sheaf of papers towards the podium while Deputy Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal presided over the House. The letter she sent was addressed to the 8220;Speaker/Deputy8221;. Naturally, it fell short of legal parametres.

Chatterjee has meticulously followed the practice of accepting a resignation only after meeting the member concerned. The Trinamool leader did not meet him to press her previous resignation and there is no hint that she would do it this time either.

Similarly, BJP member Navjot Singh Sidhu Amritsar was told to revise his letter last year if he was insistent upon its acceptance. The resignation of M H Ambareesh Mandya against Cauvery Tribunal Award was turned down on the same ground. With the Winter session slated to get underway from Thursday, the Trinamool chief would in all probability be present in the House.