NEW DELHI: West Bengal sports minister Aroop Biswas on Tuesday offered to resign from his post following allegations of mismanagement at football star Lionel Messi’s event at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said.In a Facebook post, Ghosh shared what he claimed was a copy of a resignation letter written by Biswas to chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in which the minister sought to be relieved of his responsibilities as the state’s sports minister.The development comes amid growing criticism and political backlash over alleged mismanagement and security lapses during the high-profile event held at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan on December 13. Angry spectators reportedly went on a rampage and clashed with police, causing damage to stadium furniture estimated at around Rs 2 crore.
Also read – Lionel Messi’s Kolkata visit chaos: Police chief blames ‘mismanagement’ for crowd fury at Salt Lake stadium“Sports minister Aroop Biswas has written to chief minister Mamata Banerjee requesting to be relieved of the responsibility of the sports department,” Ghosh said, linking the move to the controversy surrounding the Messi event.However, the letter shared by the TMC leader was not on Biswas’s official letterhead, triggering questions in political circles about its formal status.Repeated attempts to contact Biswas for comment went unanswered, and there was no immediate confirmation from the chief minister’s office (CMO) on whether the resignation offer had been accepted.Biswas, a senior Trinamool Congress leader and a close associate of the chief minister, has so far not issued any public statement on the matter.
