The rush to resign following the Left Front’s defeat continued on Wednesday with at least three prominent names in academia and literature putting in their papers, underlining their stand in the “us versus them” battle.

Pabitra Sarkar (academician) resigned as vice-chairman of Bangla Academy, Nirendranath Chakraborty (poet) as president of Bangla Akademi and a government committee to oversee celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore, and Mohit Chattopadhyay (playwright) as president of Natya Academy.

All eight members of the state women’s commission and the chairperson, Malini Bhattacharya, are likely to quit in a day or two. “We have decided to resign,” Bhattacharya, a former CPM MP and retired professor at Jadavpur University, told Metro. She, however, refused to say what prompted the move.

Sarkar, a friend of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is in Bangladesh and was unavailable for comment. “Before leaving for Bangladesh, he had sent his resignation letter to the information and culture department (which was headed by Bhattacharjee),” a relative of Sarkar said.

Chakraborty feels he has lost the “moral right” to continue in the two posts as the government that had appointed him has ceased to exit. “I have resigned because I think Bangla Akademi and the Tagore committee should function in a way the new government wants them to,” said Chakraborty.

Three heavyweight academicians, all known to be close to the Left, had resigned on Tuesday — Atish Dasgupta as director of the West Bengal State Archives, Subimal Sen as chairman of the state higher education council and Sanat Chattopadhyay as secretary of Bangla Akademi.

The academicians have denied they had been under pressure from any political party but their departure has posed a “challenge” to the Mamata Banerjee government that will take over on Friday.

“Some of those who have resigned are experts in their fields. Mamata Banerjee should not hesitate to offer them the posts if she wants to break with the Left regime’s tradition of promoting sycophants irrespective of merit,” said a senior government official.

A former CPM minister said the spurt in resignation showed that the poll outcome had failed to sway the “intellectuals” loyal to the Left. “They are still with us.”