Kolkata: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose on Monday resigned from the TMC, declaring himself "disillusioned" with mainstream political parties and asserting that he found "no difference" between the politics practised by the ruling BJP and the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit.
The resignation comes barely four months after Bose joined the TMC ahead of this year's West Bengal Assembly elections, having earlier described his decision to join the BJP as a "mistake". It marks yet another political shift for the former BJP state vice-president, who has consistently maintained that his politics is rooted in Netaji's ideology rather than party affiliations.
Bose said he would now mentor a proposed youth-led political outfit that would be guided by the ideals of Netaji and seek to provide an alternative to what he described as the politics of polarisation and confrontation.
"I have been in the Forward Bloc, BJP and TMC. I am disillusioned with the mainstream political parties. They are all the same, just two sides of the same coin," Bose told PTI.
"My politics is based on Netaji's ideology. We want to build a new political platform based on his principles of inclusive nationalism, secularism, social justice and development. I will mentor the youth who are coming together to form a party based on Netaji’s ideals," he said.
There was no immediate reaction from the TMC.
Bose's exit comes at a time when West Bengal's political landscape is witnessing a major realignment following the BJP's victory in the Assembly elections, which brought the saffron party to power in the state and ended the Trinamool Congress' uninterrupted 15-year rule.
Though never a mass electoral figure, Bose's political decisions have often attracted attention because of his lineage and his sustained efforts to invoke Netaji's ideology in contemporary politics.
His political journey has been marked by frequent shifts but a consistent emphasis on what he calls Netaji's vision of an inclusive India.
A former member of the Forward Bloc, the party founded by Netaji, Bose joined the BJP in 2016 amid the party's aggressive expansion in West Bengal. He was appointed the party's state vice-president and contested the 2016 Assembly election and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on the BJP ticket.
However, his relationship with the BJP steadily deteriorated. He was dropped from the post of state vice-president during the party's organisational reshuffle in 2020 and increasingly voiced his differences with the leadership.
In 2023, Bose resigned from the BJP, alleging that the party had failed to honour its commitment to promote the inclusive nationalist ideology of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Sarat Chandra Bose.
When he joined the Trinamool Congress in April this year, Bose launched a sharp attack on his former party, accusing the BJP of practising divisive politics in the name of religion and acting against the spirit of the Constitution.
"When I joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, I was made to understand that I could work to promote the ideology of Sarat Chandra Bose and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, which is inclusive and secular. India, as per the Constitution, is a sovereign, democratic, socialist, secular republic," he had said while joining the TMC.
He had then described his decision to join the BJP as a "mistake" and expressed hope that the TMC would provide a platform to uphold constitutional values and inclusive politics.
Monday's resignation, however, underscored his disenchantment with the TMC as well.
Apart from politics, Bose has remained one of the most prominent campaigners for preserving Netaji's legacy. As spokesperson of the Open Platform for Netaji, he has spearheaded efforts demanding the declassification of files relating to the freedom fighter and greater public access to archival records concerning his life and disappearance.
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