I have resigned from the Rajya Sabha membership today. #Assam — Bhubaneswar Kalita (@BKalitaINC) 1564985706000

(TOI can't vouch for the authenticity of this letter.)

(With inputs from ANI)

NEW DELHI: In another setback for the Congress , its Rajya Sabha MP and chief whip Bhubaneshwar Kalita resigned from the party and the House on Monday opposing the party's stand on the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu announced in the House that he has accepted Kalita's resignation.The Union government on Monday revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and proposed that the state be bifurcated into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.The Congress has slammed the move calling it a "black day" in the country's constitutional history.The party alleged that the government has "dismembered" Jammu and Kashmir by "mischievously misinterpreting" articles in the Constitution and cautioned that the idea of India as a Union of states is in "grave danger"."My resignation has been accepted. I will not analyse the reasons now, maybe tomorrow or day after, I will explain," Bhubaneswar Kalita told news agency ANI, when asked about his move.Meanwhile, a letter doing the rounds on social media reveals that Bhubaneswar Kalita was upset with the Congress when he was asked to issue a whip to party members against the government's move on the Kashmir issue. He wrote that he is resigning from the party in protest.Kalita was a Rajya Sabha member from Assam. He had only a few months left in his tenure and was due to retire on April 9, 2020.He is the second Congress MP from Rajya Sabha to resign in the recent past after Sanjay Sinh, a member of the erstwhile Amethi royal family, who has joined the BJP.