Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi on Friday announced his resignation from the Rajya Sabha ahead of Assembly elections in West Bengal.

“There is violence happening in my state,” Trivedi told the House. “We cannot speak anything here. I am feeling suffocated that we’re not able to do anything about the violence in the state. My soul tells me that if you can’t do anything sitting here, then you must resign.”

Trivedi said that he will continue to work for the people of West Bengal. He also thanked the Trinamool Congress for sending him to Rajya Sabha. “My voice of conscience is saying what Swami Vivekananda used to say – arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached,” Trivedi was quoted as saying by PTI.

The politician said he was unable to speak his mind in the Trinamool Congress, adding that there was no forum to raise his concerns.

“What triggered me was that Bengal has some of the best brains in the world and when we talk about Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Rabindranath Tagore and we don’t follow their ideology...we are just taking their names for the sake of it,” he said in an interview to News18.

Trivedi said that the political discourse within the party resorted to a lot of verbal abuses. “You don’t need to abuse the prime minister every time,” he added. “There is so much of gali galoch [swearing].”

On the prospect of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, Trivedi made non-committal remarks. “At this moment, I am back to my own conscious self and I am relieved that I can at least talk my mind,” he said, according to News18. “When you are in a party you have to be within the boundaries, discipline of the party. However, I am grateful.”

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh asked Trivedi to submit his resignation to the chairperson in writing.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha Saugata Roy said he was saddened by Trivedi’s resignation, NDTV reported. “I knew he was dissatisfied but I did not know he would quit,” Roy said.

TMC Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said Trivedi is “ungrateful”, according to PTI. “For the last so many years he [Trivedi] did not say anything,” he added. “Now all of a sudden just months before the state assembly poll he has complaints. This shows his true colours. He is ungrateful and has betrayed the trust of the masses.”

Soon after Trivedi announced his resignation, BJP’s in-charge in Bengal, Kailash Vijayvargiya, said: “Dinesh Trivedi is more than welcome to join BJP,” NDTV reported. “He has taken a year to quit the Trinamool”.

Unidentified officials have also told News18 that the former Trinamool Congress leader is likely to join the saffron party.