Assam TMC chief, 2 others quit

​Guwahati: Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) president Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned on Thursday in protest against party supremo Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the final draft of the NRC, which has evoked a sharp reaction from different parties and organisations in the state.  

Pathak's resignation came within hours of a TMC delegation arriving at the Silchar airport in the Bengali-dominated Barak valley at Banerjee's instructions and being stopped from exiting it by the police. Diganta Saikia, a TMC leader from Golaghat and who was among the three to resign, even threatened to file a case against Banerjee for taking an anti-Assamese stand. 

The ruling BJP as well as other parties in Assam said the TMC had no existence in the Barak valley. Pathak, a former MLA from Hajo, told reporters here that he had apprised the party leaders of the "ground realities" in Assam after the publication of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and urged Banerjee not to send the delegation to the north-eastern state now.