Laxmi Ratan Shukla

Somya Kapoor ∙ 5 Jan 2021

Laxmi Ratan Shukla resigns from minister's post

West Bengal Minister of State for Sports and former cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla has resigned from his post of a minister from West Bengal government. Shukla also quit as the Trinamool Congress district president in Howrah but he continues to hold the position as TMC MLA. Shukla’s decision of resigning from the post came days after TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari quit from Mamata Banerjee's cabinet and later joined BJP. He made headlines earlier after donating his three months' MLA salary along with BCCI pension to help fight the COVID-19 in the state. "It is the need of the hour that we all contribute to the best of our abilities. I have already donated three months of my MLA salary to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. Also, I get pension from BCCI. I have donated three months of my BCCI pension," Shukla told PTI on Friday.  The right-handed cricketer has played for Bengal and was a part of Kolkata Knight Riders, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League. He also represented India in 3 ODIs picking up one wicket. Shukla scored over 6000 runs in 137 First-class matches including 9 tons and 37 half-centuries while scalped 172 wickets. In 141 List A matches, the right-handed all-rounder notched up 2997 runs and picked up 143 wickets. He retired from all forms of cricket in December 2015.