Mamata Banerjee lashes out at rebel TMC faction, dares dissidents to join BJP

Facing the Trinamool Congress's worst organizational crisis, party supremo Mamata Banerjee launched a fierce attack on rebels, accusing them of conspiring with the BJP. Banerjee vowed to hold the July 21 Martyrs' Day rally despite facing administrative hurdles

Kolkata: Launching a blistering counterattack against the rebel faction that has torn the Trinamool Congress apart, party supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused the dissidents of conspiring with the BJP to engineer a split and dared them to formally join the saffron party if they had the courage.

In an emotionally charged Facebook Live address, her first since the party plunged into its worst organisational crisis, Banerjee defended her leadership, lashed out at the rebels, vowed to press ahead with the TMC’s July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally despite administrative hurdles, and declared that while individuals may desert the party, “an institution does not cease to exist”.

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Responding to the allegations, the BJP claimed that leaders were quitting TMC because the cut money, which “acted as its binding glue”, has been stopped after the saffron party came to power.

“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 on a day she lost another long-time associate Chandrima Bhattacharya, who quit as TMC’s West Bengal president and other party positions.

She announced that, alongside fulfilling her responsibilities as the party’s chairperson, she would also function as the TMC’s Bengal 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”.

About Bhattacharya’s exit, the TMC supremo sounded nonchalant. “Chandrima had been saying for some time now that she wants to resign. Her son had already joined hands with them (the rebels). It doesn’t matter to me if a few leaders here and there desert the party and join hands with the BJP,” she said.

Referring to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel faction moving the Election Commission, staking claim to the party’s twin flower symbol, Banerjee said the people of Bengal will see through such “treacherous moves”.

“I don’t care about the party symbol, although I know they won’t be able to snatch it away. They will not get success since I will dangle the symbol from my neck and reach out to the people. Many have betrayed the party and walked away. They won only because I signed on their nomination papers. At the BJP’s behest, they have betrayed the party,” she said.

“But even if they use ‘Vanish Kumar’ to snatch away the party symbol, they will not be able to silence my voice. Individuals may leave, but an institution does not cease to exist,” she added, apparently making a distortion of the name of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Banerjee also lambasted the rebel camp for attempting to take control of the party’s officiating headquarters on Friday and putting up new locks on its main gate to restrict the entry of Mamata-loyalists into the premises.

“No one can loot the Trinamool Congress’s assets. No one can seize what belongs to our party. You are taking the central forces with you to put locks on our offices. You may be able to lock up a building, but you cannot lock people’s hearts,” she said.

Banerjee claimed that the rent agreement with the building owners is valid till October 2027 and that the party had been regularly paying rents, maintenance and electricity bills for the premises. She held out multiple copies of cheques handed over to the landlord for the purpose.

Expressing her views on the current political developments in the state, Banerjee also had comments on Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, a former Trinamool leader.

“I extend my best wishes to the person who has become the chief minister today. But I will remind him that he once belonged to the Trinamool. He was once in Congress as well. He lost elections many times and I repeatedly visited his constituency for him. That was my duty, and I take no credit for that,” she said.

He was also a TMC MLA for about a decade and served as a minister in the transport and irrigation departments, she said, adding that Adhikari was in charge of six districts where she helped set up Zilla Parishads, Gram Sabhas, and Panchayats.

“From the Development Boards of Haldia to Digha, everything was run by our government through you. Suddenly, within just three to four years, you have become a saint. And those who had nothing and struggled all their lives are now being targeted with state terror. Do not act with cruelty, it may come back one day to bite you,” she warned.

Banerjee reiterated her conviction to observe the Martyr’s Day rally on July 21 despite alleged non-cooperation from the authorities.

“The police are denying permission, saying that no rallies will be allowed in Kolkata’s central and north zones until August. What kind of statement is this? Is this the silencing of democracy? Or a blanket order by force. There is no Section 144, no communal unrest. Then why is this being done? Only to disrupt TMC events?” she said.

“Even if the programme has to be held standing on a rickshaw, we will do it. Subject to a response from the police on our permission request, we will inform our workers about the rally venue,” she added.

In a stern response to Banerjee’s allegations, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said leaders were quitting TMC because “cut-money culture which acted as its binding glue” has now been stopped.

“The party will have no place in history apart from the syllabus of modern Islamic history of the state,” he said.