Click to play videoKolkata: Singer-turned-politician and Trinamool MP Kabir Suman has told CNN-IBN that he may quit from the Trinamool party and even resign from his Parliament membership.
The MP alleged that local workers and leaders of his party, the Trinamool Congress have left him a disillusioned man.
"The local leaders of Trinamool come and clamour for money. Give us your MPLAD (Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme). What does that mean? This is not party LAD. It is MP LAD."
Suman said he has exhausted avenues of getting this anomaly corrected.
"So who do I go to? Mamata Banerjee? So, for everything do I have to go to Mamata Banerjee? No, I refuse to do that. Well, it is modern politics. It is not a one-man show. I do not believe in that. So I want to open a dialogue with the local leaders. They do not listen to me and all day long hanker after the MPLAD funds...give us the MPLAD money they say. What is this?" Suman asked.
His angst does not end with the leaders just asking for money. Suman is upset about the pace or lack of it in development of the area.
"Now the people who are doing this have the panchayat samiti and zilla parishad (local governance bodies at grass root levels) in their control. Around 300 to 400 crore rupees at their disposal and a signing power. But what use is that when not a single brick has been laid, not a single tube well has been sunk? I am saying - No! Give me the right to say No. If not, then to hell with your parliamentary democracy and MPship. I do not want to remain an MP,"Suman said.
The noted Bengali singer politician had contested from Kolkata's adjoining South 24-Parganas' Jadavpur constituency and trounced the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) heavyweight Sujan Chakraborty in the April-May general elections this year.
Suman has spoken against misusing funds allocated for development work by party workers in the past too.
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