With several legislators leaving the Trinamool Congress, the party is facing an existential crisis. Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra insists that this is a good cleanse, and all the rumors about the TMC’s demise are just wishful thinking of the BJP. She spoke to HT soon after news broke of her colleague Sushmita Dave’s resignation. Edited excerpts:
Your first reaction to Sushmita Dev’s exit?
People are free. It is a free country. She was in Congress. She left Congress and came to us. We gave her a Rajya Sabha (seat), not once, but twice. For whatever reason…she would have to answer for that, why she left. I am not responsible for what I did. We have 13 Rajya Sabha MPs, of whom Sukhendu Sekhar Roy has resigned. And now Sushmita Dave has resigned. Let us see what happens, whether they return as BJP MPs or BJP will bring someone else in their area from Bengal.
She tweeted that 16 Lok Sabha MPs have gone to the other side. Has this number now increased to 20 as they claim?
They have 16, and they claimed to have 20. Now, it’s their responsibility. If they really had 20 people, I’m sure there could have been a message, there could have been signatures, there could have been a joint press conference (with the BJP). I can tell you categorically that they do not have 20 representatives. In order for the anti-defection (law) not to apply, two-thirds of the legislative party, but the political party, must disengage. Not just stay away, they should merge with the BJP. So a) you have to have two-thirds, not even 19, two-thirds of the members of the political party, which they don’t have. b) Even if they had 20, what would happen to them? That you can sit aside (from TMC). Apart from sitting aside, there is no scope for recognition of any separate faction or bloc in the Lok Sabha or in the Assembly. They are free to call themselves Kakoli Congress, Shatabdi Congress or BJP-B Bengal team and sit aside. So they are invited to sit aside and vote for the BJP. No one can stop that. But this is the end of their career in the Lok Sabha.
The Opposition has always claimed that people are forced to leave their parties or join the BJP under pressure or threat from investigating agencies. But a lot of names there, for example, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, there doesn’t seem to be any case pending against them?
Sukhendu Sekhar Roy is a political opportunist. I hope you understand that he was with Congress. He was never with us. In 2011, when we came to power, he was Pranab Mukherjee’s man. He wasn’t even a congressman.
So when Pranabda could not give him the Rajya Sabha seat, he said to Mamata Banerjee, I will send you Sukhendu Sekhar, please give him the Rajya Sabha seat. If he felt so strongly about Mamata Banerjee, and he felt so strongly about RG Kar (rape and murder of doctor)…, when did it happen? A year and a half ago he should have resigned, why didn’t he? He went on holiday to Kashmir. Is this considered a departure?
Is Sushmita Dev a political opportunist?
You will have to ask her this question. Sushmita Dev is a friend of mine. I will not say anything about its causes. You’ll have to ask her yourself.
What is the general mood within your party now?
In some ways, we’re actually glad that Shodi KaranCleansing happens.
Mamata Di, for all her quirks, despite her drive, is a deeply emotional person with a great deal of affection and long-term loyalty. In the BJP… it is merciless. People like Lal Krishna Advani, people like Murali Manohar Joshi, people like Sushma Swaraj were completely isolated and kept at bay. Mamata Di is not cruel. So, there are a lot of these completely useless rude people who have been riding Mamata Di’s coattails for the last 15 years… She should have cut them off.
Was the mistake Mamata Banerjee made in continuing to trust people who might have been sitting on the fence?
Yes, that’s the lesson. She did her best to do all these things because she came from the grassroots and had that connection. Mamata Banerjee built this party. She didn’t inherit it. So you have to take with it the good, the bad and the ugly.
People like us have not left it because we are basically anti-BJP. We will never leave it.
Will you respond to this accusation (nepotism) related to Abhishek Banerjee that is constantly repeated?
So everyone who follows cricket today thinks Jay Shah is there (in BCCI) because he is… the smartest… Did Abhishek Banerjee get that first ticket in 2014 because he was Mamata Banerjee’s nephew? Yes he did. But has he been elected three times since then, become national general secretary of our party and done organizational work for the party, traversed the country, built an organization? Yes he did. He’s been there 12 years. He paid his dues. It does not mean that he was parachuted from above and sat at home and did nothing. I could have been sarcastic. He is much younger than me. I accepted him as National Secretary General. I could have been rebellious and done what Suvendu did. Suvendu said I want to be the next person in command. As long as Abhishek is there, I will not get this place. And then, I’ll part ways. I will go to BJP. There are a certain amount of clean and transparent ways to do this. I respect that. I have respect for Suvendu. I have a very good personal equation with him, which has never been ruined. I haven’t contacted him since he left but he’s put his money where his mouth is. So why wouldn’t any of these people? If any of these 60 MLAs had an issue with Abhishek, why didn’t they leave the party before the 2026 elections, join the BJP and win a BJP ticket?
And this whole anti-IPAC thing?
What IPAC is doing today, I frankly did in the Congress party when I was a member of Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi in 2008. They taught me organization at the ward level. But mass-based parties like Trinamool, like Congress, and unorganized parties are very slow, especially the old guard, slow to build cadres in an organized way. To do this, they brought in IPAC. Now, I didn’t let IPAC hold the 2024 election, and I didn’t let them in; I did it myself.
There was no IPAC in Krishnagar Lok Sabha constituency in 2024 Lok Sabha. I won even though it was a difficult election. IPAC told me I would lose; I said I would win and I won.
But not everyone has that training, that ability, and a lot of older people don’t have that thing with Excel, with making lists. And remember, we are competing against the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is a very organized and technology-oriented party, which has unlimited resources and can outsource everything. So, in order to do this and help a lot of our seniors, who have no experience in English or numeracy, in creating a structure, it was necessary to involve them. So of course, now when you bring something good, how much are you going to let it disappear with it? So yes, was there an overrun? Yes, maybe there was. But was bringing them in to simplify our systems a good idea? Yes it was.
