A day after his wife and two sons were summoned for questioning by the central agency’s Enforcement Directorate in a corruption-linked case, Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra on Wednesday switched his allegiance from Mamata Banerjee’s camp to the rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee. He said that he “did not change my room until the assembly.”
Mitra, who served as a minister under Mamata, said he wanted her nephew and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee – whom many rebels have blamed for the TMC’s split – to “step down for six months” but resigned when that demand was not granted.
“I said [Abhishek]Let’s build the party, and then you can come back and take your seat, but he refused. He said: I will not leave the party. The party is drowning. The boat has gone under. People are dying. However, the party decided, or rather, they had to accept that everyone else could die, but Abhishek had to be saved. “It is very sad,” Mitra said at a press conference, sitting next to Ritabrata, who carries with him most of the 80 TMC MLAs and is the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly at present.
The division within Mamata’s party has grown since the BJP and TMC regime ousted her 15 years after the election results in May. With most of the TMC members and MPs switching to the rebel faction or technically “merging” into a small party from Tripura, the question of who owns the original TMC is being contested before the Election Commission.
Mitra also said, “The party belongs to everyone, but it seems to have been reduced to serving Abhishek only. I strongly request Mamata ji to come, let us look at this as a marathon. We will definitely cross paths along the way. Let us see which horse will run ahead. I have resigned from all posts. Although I am still an MLA. I have left everything associated with Trinamool. This means I am no longer a Trinamool MLA in the functional sense,” he said.
Mamata, Abhishek and the MPs still with them, like Mahua Moitra, have alleged that the “mutiny” occurred due to temptations, greed or fear of the BJP and central agencies under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre.
