Trouble continues for Trinamool Congress (TMC) with mass resignations that began soon after the assembly election results were announced. It appears that the internal trouble isn’t merely spilling onto the public domain in the street; it has also reached the national capital. TMC’s Barasat MP Kakolki Ghosh Dastidar’s letter to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to file a complaint against Serampore MP and party colleague Kalyan Banerjee indicates underlying issues within the party going unaddressed in recent times. Dastidar’s allegations against Banerjee include verbal abuse inside Parliament. “This misogyny has been against many lady members and needs to be punished,” Dastidar wrote in her letter.
The Barasat MP resigned from all party posts earlier this week, unhappy with the functioning of the party leadership in recent years and the involvement of the party’s strategy wing, Indian Political Action Committee(I-PAC), in the running of the party.
The change overnight
What appears to be an overnight shift in the party's fortunes may actually reflect a deeper and long-simmering crisis. Many leaders seem to have been looking for an opportunity to speak out without being engulfed by an atmosphere of fear. This fear stemmed from the possibility of backlash from the TMC's top leadership or strong disciplinary action.
Dastidar attended the administrative meeting chaired by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in Kalyani, Nadia district, on Tuesday. Following the meeting, the chief minister said he had invited elected representatives from other political parties because they wanted to speak. Dastidar alleged that although she had been invited to several administrative meetings in the past, she was not allowed to speak. This, in itself, suggests the extent to which disgruntled leaders within Mamata Banerjee's party want to be seen and heard, something that appears increasingly difficult within the organisation. Six TMC MLAs also attended the meeting in Kalyani.
Dissent within the party became more visible after the May 4 election results. Those who publicly expressed dissatisfaction included TMC spokespersons Riju Dutta and Dr Shantanu Sen, Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Shekhar Roy, councillors Arup Chakraborty and Sushanta Ghosh, former education minister and expelled leader Partha Chatterjee, former Barrackpore MLA Raj Chakraborty, and junior minister Manoj Tiwari. While Raj Chakraborty quit active politics altogether, Tiwari left the TMC.
The TMC is now attempting to salvage its fragmented organisation, rebuild its legacy and move beyond the corruption allegations that have dogged several of its leaders and former ministers. There have been Enforcement Directorate (ED) crackdowns and state police arrests involving TMC leaders and individuals associated with the former ruling establishment. These include alleged land shark and extortionist Sona Pappu and his aides, as well as former Fire and Emergency Services Minister Sujit Bose. Mamata Banerjee's nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, is also under scrutiny over alleged irregularities in building plans related to 17 properties belonging to him and his family members.
Amid these developments, senior party leader and Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, has called a meeting of all 80 TMC MLAs at Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence on Sunday. Through this meeting, the TMC hopes to restore confidence among its legislators and project unity in the face of mounting challenges, even as the party grapples with internal unrest and an uncertain political future.
