Mamata Banerjee anticipated TMC crisis, say leaders as more members quit

TRinamool us congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee had awaited(p) the possibleness of a rising within her company soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s landslide victory in the Assembly polls on May 4, but had no solution to avert it, several TMC leaders said, a day after West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Nath Bose recognised 58 rebel TMC legislators as the principal opposition party in the 294-member House on Wednesday.“On May 5, a day after counting of votes, she refused to resign as chief minister saying TMC won the polls but the counting process was rigged. Although the BJP dubbed this as her arrogance, we interpreted it as a desperate message to dedicated TMC workers and leaders. She clearly anticipated a crisis,” a senior TMC leader told HT, requesting anonymity.In the two-phase polls, the BJP won a record 207 seats while the TMC, seeking its fourth term in power, secured only 80. Although the TMC secured 40.80% of the votes against the BJP’s 45.84%, the difference in seat share pointed to the polarisation of Hindu votes — the community comprises around 70% of the population, according to the 2011 Census — in favour of the BJP. On Wednesday, the splinter group of 58 MLAs was recognised as the main TMC in the Assembly.Dissent IgnoredThe angst against the party’s national general secretary and Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, had been simmering in the party for long, but Mamata did not take corrective steps. During the 2022 municipal polls, the rebel group released its own list of candidates but had to retract it following pressure from the party’s top brass, leaders said.A senior party leader said that even after the signs of discontent, Banerjee did not take any action and continued to rely fully on her nephew through I-PAC to run the party. “Many senior leaders were sidelined during the Assembly ticket-selection process and any attempt to reason with the decisions was silenced as dissent,” the party leader said.There had been unrest in the party since its 2021 victory over Abhishek Banerjee’s decision to outsource the party’s operations to I-PAC, according to TMC leaders. “I-PAC was pitting local leaders against each other and sometimes even telling senior leaders what to say, which was demeaning for us senior leaders,” said a Lok Sabha member, who has so far stood with Banerjee.Kespur MLA Siuli Saha, a member of the rebel group, said: “Didi (Mamata Banerjee) is still our leader but she needs to think. We could not reach out to her since 2016. There was no platform where we could discuss our problems. The top leadership was completely inaccessible. Can a political party that rose from the ground work like this?”Meanwhile, Mamata’s reaction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s raids on the I-PAC office in Kolkata and the subsequent arrest of its top functionaries shocked several senior leaders.“Her reaching Pratik Jain’s office and taking files away sent the message that she was backing a consultant more than its leaders who had gone to jail on corruption charges,” another party leader said, asking how a party could outsource its strategy to a consultant.Too little, too lateAfter the debacle, Mamata’s every effort to keep the party intact backfired.In a bid to keep the party intact, a TMC Rajya Sabha MP said Banerjee appealed to opposition parties for a united front against the BJP.“Although regional party leaders such as Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal expressed their solidarity, all state parties, including the Congress, rejected her appeal. This sent a negative message to our supporters,” an MP said.Communist Party of India (CPI) Bengal secretary Swapan Banerjee said, “Democracy was in peril under her rule. She is authoritarian.”On May 15, Banerjee called a meeting of all losing candidates, which widened the fissures in the party.“She called all losing candidates to her residence to analyse the results but expressed anguish at some of them for making anti-TMC remarks and holding the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the party’s strategy consultant, responsible for the debacle. She said she would not stop anyone from leaving TMC and would start from scratch,” an MLA said, requesting anonymity.Despite her appeal, party leaders openly continued to blame I-PAC and Abhishek Banerjee for the defeat. Two party spokespersons, Riju Dutta and Kohinoor Majumdar, were suspended for their comments to the media against I-PAC and Banerjee. Lok Sabha member Kalyan Banerjee, who is among the few Parliament members still seen by the party chief, wondered if the leadership made a mistake by depending so much on I-PAC. His son was among those who lost this election.Many other prominent party leaders did not come out in support of Banerjee over her handling of the polls, indicating the anger among party workers against the leadership.So far, 58 of the 80 MLAs have formed a splinter group in the Assembly, which has been recognised as the TMC in the Assembly. Over 100 municipal councillors have resigned from the party. Former transport minister Snehasish Chakraborty, who left the TMC on Wednesday, said, “The party was operating in a corporate style for several years. There was nobody to listen to us.”Mizoram’s advocate general Biswajit Deb left the TMC on Wednesday.“Such rampant corruption could not have happened without the knowledge of Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee. They are responsible. The TMC will completely collapse,” he said.Veteran political columnist Suvashis Maitra said dynastic rule is a phenomenon in almost all regional parties, except the Aam Aadmi Party, but none has witnessed a coup of this nature.“Whether it is the Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) or Rashtriya Janata Dal, the second-generation leaders are not as successful as their fathers. However, none faced a rebellion like Abhishek. I-PAC apparently became a target because it represented Abhishek’s command. The TMC’s power centre shifted from Mamata’s Kalighat residence to Abhishek’s Camac Street office,” Maitra said.“Moreover, Mamata Banerjee’s back-to-back defeats to Suvendu Adhikari in 2021 and 2026 also questioned her capability to ensure victory. TMC leaders now apparently question both her administrative and political credibility. This is not going to end here,” Maitra added.