Kamarhati legislator Madan Mitra, a close aide of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and someone who has been part of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) since its birth in 1998, joined the rebel camp led by Ritabrata Banerjee on Wednesday, a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sent summons to his wife and two sons.
With this, the rebel faction now has 60 out of 80 legislators in the TMC, while Mamata’s faction has 20. But the rebel camp, which was formed from 58 TMC members who signed a letter to the TMC president, claims to have at least 65 members but has not released their names yet.
Read also | MLA Madan Mitra loyal to Mamata joins TMC rebel camp, says he has nothing to do with ED summons
Madan Mitra resigns
“From this moment I am resigning from the National Action Committee, the post of Chief Whip in the Assembly and the post of Secretary General of Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. I have been in the TMC and I have stayed there. I am just changing rooms,” Mitra said after joining the rebel group.
Mitra was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 12, 2014 in the Sarada chit fund case and was released on bail after 629 days and was arrested by the CBI again in May 2021 in the Narada sting case. The CEO on Tuesday sent summons to his wife and two sons for questioning over alleged corruption in recruitment by Kamarhati municipality.
“My family has been summoned by a federal agency. My family will go and cooperate with the agency. But this is not related to my joining (the rebels) today. Can the ED prove these allegations?” Mitra said.
Read also | ‘On special invitation of ED’: Mahua Moitra rejects Madan Mitra’s exit from Mamata’s TMC to rebel camp | He watches
“Fight family-controlled politics”
Ritabrata Banerjee said the collective effort by the rebel group to fight family-controlled politics in the party has been strengthened with Mitra’s joining.
“Our collective fight is against family-controlled politics. Our collective efforts have become stronger today. Mitra is a veteran,” he said.
Mitra blamed TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee for the current situation of the party, which suffered a defeat in the Assembly elections.
“It is really sad that when history is written, it will say that a party was destroyed because of just one person,” Mitra said.
“Abhishek wants the party to just follow his orders. He does not listen to anyone. Millions of our workers are helpless today. We have to take care of them. If the party is not taken care of now, we will never be able to defeat the BJP. Abhishek will never be able to defeat the BJP,” Mitra said.
Birbhum district leader Anubrata Mondal, who joined the rebel group last week after being summoned by the state police in an old extortion case, leveled a serious allegation against Abhishek soon after Mitra joined the new camp.
“I went to jail because of Abhishek… Mamata is ruined because of him. There will be no one left,” said Mondal, who spent two years in judicial custody in Delhi’s Tihar Jail as the prime accused in the cattle smuggling case.
In a Facebook Live an hour later, Mamata Banerjee hit back at Mitra, calling the rebels traitors and alleging that they were using Abhishek as an excuse to get protection from various investigations.
“All these people are entering the BJP’s washing machine to get protection…,” Banerjee said.
Debjit Sarkar, BJP’s official spokesperson in Bengal, said, “How can the BJP know where Madan Mitra will go?…”
