‘Laapata Ladies’: BJP targets ‘missing’ TMC women MPs

Several prominent Trinamool Congress women MPs and MLAs, including Mahua Moitra, Saayoni Ghosh, Menaka Guruswamy, and Sagarika Ghosh, have reportedly gone missing from the political scene after the party’s defeat in the West Bengal Assembly election.

New Delhi: Many Trinamool Congress MLAs and MPs have reportedly been missing since the Mamata Banerjee-led party lost the West Bengal Assembly election and has since been visibly disintegrating. Among them, most notably, are several women representatives who had otherwise been vociferous in defending the party and its leader.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari on Wednesday appeared to raise the issue through a meme posted on social media platform X.

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The meme took the form of a poster featuring four prominent women representatives from Trinamool who have regularly been found raising their voices for their cause, both in and outside Parliament.

Bhandari wrote “NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T!” on the poster, titled “Laapata Ladies”, which featured photographs of Lok Sabha MPs Mahua Moitra and Saayoni Ghosh, and their Rajya Sabha colleagues Menaka Guruswamy and Sagarika Ghosh.

Each photograph carried the word “missing”.

While Mahua and Sagarika are known for their sharp debates and strong statements, noted film actor Saayoni has earned a reputation for speaking out forcefully on several occasions and for her ease in conversing in three languages — English, Bengali and Hindi.

Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy hit the headlines earlier this year when a clip went viral showing her lashing out at Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju during a hearing at the Calcutta High Court in a case involving the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the then West Bengal government led by the Trinamool Congress.

In the video, during a heated exchange, Guruswamy is heard telling Raju to mute himself, since he was arguing online, while demanding that he show some respect to the then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Soon after, the senior advocate was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, notably becoming the first openly queer MP in India’s history.

There has been discussion about them, and many others, who had been fiercely defending the Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee while directing barbs at the ruling National Democratic Alliance, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but who now appear absent at a time when their leader appears vulnerable.

Bhandari, in his own way, posted a satire on the issue using the title of the popular Hindi comedy-drama “Laapataa Ladies”, in which two newlywed brides are accidentally swapped while travelling by train to their in-laws’ homes.