- Defeat in Bengal election exposes Trinamool Congress internal rifts and rebellion against Mamata Banerjee
- Senior leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar resigns, urging a return to 'old style' party management methods
- Allegations of corruption and factionalism have intensified within the party ranks
Defeat in the April-May Bengal election cracked open the Trinamool Congress' carefully-managed edifice, a front that withstood 15 years of attack by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In those 15 years the Trinamool projected invincibility. Rifts broke cover now and then and there were controversies, but internal squabbles were buried beneath a string of election wins.
The loss, when it came, released a wave of bickering and squabbling that has snowballed into a louder-than-ever rebellion that has Trinamool leaders questioning party boss Mamata Banerjee's strategy, their loyalty to her, and the future of a once-undefeatable political force.
Much of that discontent was crystalised in senior leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar's resignation letter to Trinamool Working President Subrata Bakshi. Her letter went beyond simply saying 'I quit' to urge Mamata Banerjee to return to an 'old-style' method of running the party.
That appeal has been directed at election campaign management firm I-PAC, which was founded by strategist Prashant Kishore and worked with the now ex-chief minister in 2021.
Then still run by PK, I-PAC delivered a statement win for Mamata Banerjee; the Trinamool swept 215 of the state's 294 seats, four more than the already-massive mandate from the 2016 poll.
In her letter Dastidar - who has been by Mamata Banerjee's side since the Trinamool was founded - also spoke out against corruption allegations that have roiled the party.
The outburst wasn't an isolated incident. Disgruntled leaders have begun to talk about organisational decay, factionalism, and erosion of the party's original ethos.
Across the divide (and in an exchange that underlines the factionalism) Dastidar's parliamentary colleague, Kalyan Banerjee, another party veteran, has been targeting her.
In fact, the Trinamool has now set up a five-member committee to act against those who offer public criticism; the first axe fell on spokesperson Riju Dutta, who was suspended for six years.
Discomfort within the party has been heightened by three councillors - Anisur Rehman, Bina Mondal, and Mohamed Abdul Matin - joining an administrative meeting led by the new chief minister, Suvendu Adhikari, fuelling speculation a section of the Trinamool is ready to jump ship.
Also, two Trinamool legislators - Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha - met with Adhikari at Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose's chamber the same day. They later said they had scheduled a courtesy call on the new speaker and had no plans to meet the BJP leader as well.
But Ritabrata Banerjee - who led the party's trade union wing before becoming a MLA - was also photographed with Adhikari at the Bengal government's guest house in Delhi last week.
Senior leaders who were once cabinet ministers and would shadow Mamata Banerjee at every meeting - like Indranil Sen, Shashi Panja, Bratya Basu, Maloy Ghatak, and Aroop Biswas - have now all but vanished from the public eye. And the arrest of ex-minister Sujit Bose - by the Enforcement Directorate on May 11 over an alleged recruitment scam - has added to the woes.
Today, 20 days after the election result, Mamata Banerjee is still seen as being in denial; in a 32:28-minute Facebook live, she repeated claims about having been 'robbed' of 150 seats.
This is the first time in four decades that the Trinamool boss has no seat in either parliament or the assembly. She has been meeting MLAs and councillors but the only time she made a public appearance was at the Calcutta High Court - to represent victims of post-poll violence.
She was greeted with 'thief' slogans as she left the court.
NDTV spoke to Trinamool leaders. They did not want to be named but said the party had shifted drastically from its 'maa, maati, manush (mother, soil, people)' base. The common complaint was that the senior leadership - which includes Banerjee - was inaccessible and that the party had lost touch with the people but continued to project a false confidence.
There were also complaints of widespread corruption, including allegations I-PAC was selling party posts for cash. One leader told NDTV: "It wasn't direct… but from a panchayat post to an MKA ticket money was demanded in the name of a 'tough election'."
