Mamata Banerjee blames BJP for TMC rift, dares rebels to join saffron party

Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of orchestrating dissent within the Trinamool Congress, challenged rebel leaders to join the saffron party openly, assumed charge as West Bengal TMC president, and announced organisational changes following Chandrima Bhattacharya's resignation

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday lashed out at the BJP, holding the saffron camp directly responsible for “orchestrating rift” within her party and using her leaders to “fuel dissent” within the TMC ranks in the aftermath of assuming state power.

On a day Banerjee lost another long-time associate Chandrima Bhattacharya, who quit as TMC’s West Bengal president and other party positions, Banerjee took to social media to dare her dissenters to directly join the BJP instead of working against her at the saffron party’s behest.

---

“I dare the treacherous and ungrateful traitors who are abandoning the party to directly join the BJP and take me on if they have the courage to do so, instead of playing this dishonest BJP-sponsored game,” Banerjee said in a video message.

She announced that, alongside fulfilling her responsibilities as the party’s chairperson, she would also function as the TMC’s state president till such time veteran leader Subrata Bakshi, who is currently indisposed, is nursed back to health.

Banerjee also announced the induction of party leaders Kunal Ghosh and Madan Mitra as general secretaries. “You call yourself rebels? Where was your rebellion before the elections? Where was your dissent during the last 15 years when you were MPs and MLAs on TMC tickets and operated as ministers and in other important government positions? Why didn’t you come to me then and voice your differences?” she said, attacking the dissenters.

Calling workers who remain loyal in “these difficult times” as the “party’s goldmine”, Banerjee advised the rebels, who “have betrayed and quit the party with their luggage and baggage” to ensure they did not commit “the same treachery with the people who voted for them”.