Raiganj, Feb. 14: Former minister Abdul Karim Chowdhury today announced that he was quitting the Trinamul Congress for being "insulted" by the leadership.

"In 2008, I had joined Trinamul and worked for the party with dignity. But recently, some people from other parties have been inducted into Trinamul and they are trying to create fissures in the ruling party. It is due to these leaders that I have been insulted by the party on a number of occasions. I am not ready to stay in Trinamul any longer and is quitting the party," Chowdhury said in Islampur today.

The nine-time MLA from Islampur claimed that he had supporters across North Dinajpur district.

In the 2016 Assembly polls, Chowdhury had been defeated by Kanaialal Agarwala, who had contested with the support of the Congress and the Left Front in Islampur. Chowdhury's decline in Trinamul started after that. He was further pushed back when Agarwala switched to Trinamul.

Since then, there have been differences between Chowdhury and Agarwala.

A clash between two groups of Trinamul Chhatra Parishad supporters at Islampur College on February 9 made the matters worse for the former minister. On the same day, a godown belonging to the Chopra MLA, Hamidul Rehman, was also set ablaze in Islampur.

Both Agarwala and Rehman blamed Chowdhury for the campus clash and the godown arson. The next day, Chowdhury was removed as the chairman of the North Bengal Development Council and the president of the governing body of Islampur College.

Political observers said Chowdhury had no option other than to join the Congress.

Mohit Sengupta, the North Dinajpur district Congress president, said: "We would welcome him back to our party. He was associated with the Congress for several years. He is the right leader to challenge Agarwala in Islampur."

But Chowdhury said he hadn't taken a decision on joining any other party.