KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of trying to create a split in her party by pressuring all 80 legislators, as her first public demonstration since the Assembly election defeat attracted only a handful of sitting MPs and MLAs amid signs of growing dissent within the party.
Addressing a two-hour protest at the Esplanade against alleged post-poll violence and eviction of street vendors, Banerjee claimed that the BJP was using the police and central agencies to lure TMC legislators into secession.
“You (BJP) have split the ruling party in Maharashtra. You are doing the same here. Police are asking TMC MLAs to form a new party. Police are going to the homes of MLAs facing corruption charges and threatening them with federal agency investigations. Is this democracy?” Banerjee said without mentioning the name of the Shiv Sena, which faced a split in 2022.
Amid reports that Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, two expelled MPs, were meeting with others to engineer a split in the TMC, only nine sitting MPs and MLAs attended the demonstration. Many former ministers and MLAs who were considered close to Banerjee stayed away.
“I met Rathin Ghosh (Madhyamgram MLA) today to inquire about his health. “I met Rathin Ghosh (Madhyamgram MLA) today to inquire about his health,” said Ritabrata, who met two MLAs, Siuli Saha from Kispur and Javed Ahmed Khan from Kasba, at the MLA hostel in Kolkata on Monday night. While Khan did not speak to the media, Saha said: “I went to the hostel just to check out the new room allotted to me.”
A senior TMC leader, who requested anonymity, claimed that more than 50 lawmakers have expressed support for a splinter faction. “To escape action under the anti-defection law, 52 TMC members have to sign a letter to the Speaker. Although the number of TMC members has come down to 78 after the two expulsions, at least 57 have agreed to split the party. They may lose the party symbol,” leader Mamata Banerjee said.
“The signs were clear when only 69 out of 80 members of the Legislative Council attended the first Legislative Party meeting on May 6. The number dropped to 64 on May 19 and only 19 on May 31,” the leader added.
In a bid to contain the crisis, TMC and Beliaghata state general secretary Kunal Ghosh appealed to party legislators not to relinquish leadership. “I appeal to the MLAs with folded hands not to follow Ritabrata Banerjee. Don’t forget that you have won the TMC symbol. You should stay with the party at this hour,” he said. He later fell ill due to heat and exhaustion during the demonstration.
Two MLAs were expelled on Monday minutes after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that a written complaint by them had led to a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe into forging signatures of some party MLAs in a May 19 resolution letter nominating Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly (LoP).
On Tuesday, Ghosh went to the Assembly with a letter from TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee urging Speaker Rathendra Bose to declare 82-year-old Chattopadhyay the party’s party.
“The Speaker did not come to the Council today and his secretariat refused to accept the letter. So, I left it on the secretary’s table and left,” Ghosh said.
Besides 78 MLAs (after the two expulsions), the TMC has 29 members in the Lok Sabha and 13 members in the Rajya Sabha.
BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya denied Banerjee’s allegations, saying: “The TMC is collapsing because of its actions. I had predicted long before the elections that it would cease to exist because the people rejected it.”
Commenting on the turnout in the demonstration, Adhikari said: “Only three MPs and six MPs attended. The number of journalists was greater than the number of people in the audience.”
At the protest, Banerjee vowed to continue her political fight. She said: “Power to me is like a piece of paper. I believe in the people and the workers. We will resist. I am a free bird now. I can go anywhere and start agitating whenever I want.”
Senior Congress and CPI(M) leaders held Mamata responsible for the unprecedented crisis plaguing the TMC. “She got her money back in her own currency. The erosion in the TMC, and the bickering in its ranks, started the moment she was defeated. I had long expected this, but even many Congress leaders in Delhi thought I had some personal grudge against Mamata Banerjee. It was never the case,” senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said. I have always opposed it because I saw how it destroyed my party in Bengal.”
The TMC defeated the Left Front government in 2011 by contesting with the Congress as its ally. The Congress withdrew from the coalition government in September 2012 when Banerjee withdrew her party’s support from the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, citing its economic policies. By then, the TMC had convinced several Bengali Congress MLAs to join it.
“What goes around comes around. What Mamata Banerjee did in the past was written by the saffron camp. The TMC wanted a less oppositional Bengal. What Mamata or Abhishek Banerjee did to make MPs and MPs from other parties defect was an exercise in killing democracy,” said Mohammad Salim, secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Maoist).
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