Former Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Madan Mitra on Friday rejected allegations that he walked out of the party’s Mamata Banerjee camp fearing investigation and Enforcement Directorate raids. Mitra said he left the party because he felt the need to do more to defeat the BJP than what the TMC is currently doing.
“The ED did not intimidate us. They did not call us or threaten us… Why mix politics with the ED?… I felt that to defeat the BJP, we would have to try harder than the way Trinamool was doing from Kalighat. I wanted to support the new, assertive Trinamool… She chased me away,” Mitra said. So I left too.”
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He went on to praise the new Chief Minister of Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, and said: “There is no doubt that given Suvendu Adhikari’s strength and energy at his age, it will be very difficult to find a leader across the country who is able to confront him.”
Mitra, who was once a close aide to former Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee, quit the TMC to join the rebel faction led by opposition leader Ritabrata Banerjee.
Madan Mitra’s scathing attack on Mamata, Abhishek’s nephew
When he left the party, Madan launched a violent attack on Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, likening her to “Dhritarashtra and Gandhari” for what he alleged was her blind love for her nephew Abhishek. He compared Abhishek to Adolf Hitler and described him as a “political villain with criminal instincts”.
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Mitra was one of Banerjee’s longest-serving political associates and among the founding-era leaders of the TMC. He announced his resignation from all the national and state organizing committees working under the Mamata Banerjee-TMC camp, besides stepping down from the post of chief whip of the party in the council.
“I have only changed my room, not my house. I am in the TMC,” Mitra was quoted as saying by PTI after meeting Ritabrata Banerjee in the House of Representatives. He announced that he would relinquish all organizational responsibility under the Mamata Banerjee-led faction while continuing as TMC MLA.
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“I am resigning from all national committees and committees of Mamata Banerjee TMC. I will also step down from my post as chief whip. I was in Trinamool and I will remain in Trinamool,” he said.
“Maybe that room had a comfortable bed while this one only had a crib. I chose the crib,” Mitra added in one of his trademark metaphors.
