3 min readJun 11, 2026 02:56 PM IST
First published on: Jun 11, 2026 at 02:40 PM IST
Known to be close to Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Chik Baraik resigned on Thursday. He is the second TMC MP to quit in as many days and the third overall since the implosion in the party’s legislative wing began.
“I do hereby resign from the membership of the Rajya Sabha, which may please be accepted with immediate effect,” Baraik wrote in his resignation letter.
“I convey my sincere gratitude to Your Excellency, the Hon’ble Deputy Chairman, and all functionaries of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for extending all help and cooperation during my tenure as a Member of the Rajya Sabha,” he added.
Soon afterwards, he met BJP MP Nishikant Dubey. Baraik did not deny the meeting and said he had also spoken to West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. “I will not disclose any personal conversation. In the future, I will act according to what the Chief Minister of Bengal instructs me,” he said.
The 45-year-old is the third TMC Rajya Sabha MP, after Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Sushmita Dev, to resign. He is also the second among the three who was picked for the Upper House by Abhishek Banerjee, after Dev.
An Adivasi leader, Baraik’s rise in the TMC was swift. In 2018, he contested his first election from Kumargram Gram Panchayat in Alipurduar district. Within five years, and a day before the counting of the 2023 panchayat polls, he was named the party’s Rajya Sabha candidate from West Bengal.
A B Com graduate from Surya Sen College in Siliguri, Baraik worked in the tea-leaf trade in Alipurduar district and was also involved in tea garden trade union politics.
TMC sources said Baraik comes from a Congress family. His father Krishna Chik Baraik is a veteran Congress leader in Alipurduar district. In 2018, with the backing of leaders close to Abhishek Banerjee, Baraik contested and won the Kumargram gram panchayat election.
After the TMC lost the Alipurduars Lok Sabha seat in 2019, the party began witnessing organisational erosion in the district. To stem the decline, the leadership appointed Baraik as Alipurduar district coordinator ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. The TMC, however, lost all Assembly seats in the district. Despite that, Baraik was made district president of Alipurduar and later nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2023. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he contested from Alipurduar as the TMC candidate and lost to the BJP’s Manoj Tigga by over 75,000 votes.
A senior TMC leader said the leadership had hoped Baraik would help the party expand its appeal among youth and Adivasi voters. “It was a surprising decision by the leadership. They thought he could cater to both the youth and Adivasi sections, but he could not,” the leader said.
With Baraik’s resignation, the TMC’s strength in the Rajya Sabha is down to 10 from 13. But its troubles appear far from being over. Party sources claimed that more members could follow suit and quit the party.
Prakash Chik Baraik was seen to be close to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. 
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