TMC | Mamata faces mutiny

That applause may finally be remembered as the point of terminal entropy. It was the first meeting of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) legislative party—after an assembly poll defeat that was, literally, bruising. Most accounts match: MLAs were reportedly asked to give a standing ovation to Abhishek Banerjee, TMC national general secretary and deposed chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew. To many legislators, that appeared odd. Too odd, to too many. Pent-up frustration exploded into mutiny.

The silent dissenters had a new figure to rally behind: Ritabrata Banerjee, MLA from Uluberia Purba. A ‘firebrand’ Left student leader from Kolkata who was sent to the Rajya Sabha by the CPI(M) in 2014, Ritabrata had right-deviated towards the TMC in 2018, which gave him another stint as a young Elder. Almost reprising the controversy over “leaking internal secrets” that had prefaced his expulsion from the CPI(M), Ritabrata again steered a damaging allegation against his party.

Mamata’s camp had nominated veteran legislator Sovandeb Chattopadhyay for the post of Leader of Opposition (LoP). Abhishek first announced the name on May 9. Amid signs of dissent, he was pressed for clarity by the assembly’s principal secretary that this was the official TMC choice. Abhishek then submitted a party resolution on May 20—with signatures from 70 legislators. Word began spreading soon that forged signatures had been used to manufacture consensus on the name.

Ritabrata had a chance encounter with chief minister Suvendu Adhikari in Delhi on May 22, but it took a week for the internal dissent to fully crystallise. On May 27, Ritabrata and another MLA formally alleged forgery in 14 signatures—apparently suspiciously rendered in block letters. They had never been consulted, said the disgruntled MLAs. Ritabrata earned another expulsion, and escalated his rebellion by marching to the state assembly on June 3. He was carrying letters of support from 58 of the TMC’s 80 MLAs.

That was well above the 10 per cent threshold required for recognition as the principal Opposition group in the House. Ritabrata was duly recognised as LoP. Among those with him: nine ex-ministers and 28 Muslim legislators. Four rebel MLAs—Ritabrata’s co-complainant Sandipan Saha, Javed Khan, Sabina Yasmin and Sheuli Saha—are now deputy leaders in the House. This effectively wrested control of the legislative wing away from Mamata.

For the TMC, it seemed like ‘heat death’. For years, discontent had simmered beneath the surface. Founded and forged like a single, giant battle jet by Mamata, the air inside the cabin wasn’t always marked by high oxygen levels. Seniors saw their spaces shrink. MLAs often felt sidelined. Decision-making was seen to have been concentrated within a small circle around Abhishek, and the corporate-style advisors IPAC.

DECIMATION TIME

Yet, no one imagined such a dramatic unravelling for a party that had won 42 per cent of the popular vote in April, even while facing the ignominy of being reduced from its commanding heights to less than one-third of the new House by the Bharatiya Janata Party. As often happens with the latter, its rivals dwindle post-election too. Mamata’s camp now owns below 7 per cent of the legislative real estate.

Does she still own Brand TMC? It’s a curiously open game. Mamata built that brand over 28 years around her irrepressible personality: a czarina-like authority, with chutzpah to spare. Now, a leader from an entirely different political tradition has bitten off its biggest legislative chunk. It may move towards a legal battle over the TMC’s ‘twin grass flowers’ symbol. But, for now, the rebel MLAs have stopped short of demanding Mamata’s removal as TMC chairperson and organisational head. In their formal submissions, they explicitly state they still recognise her as the party’s chief and “chief advisor”. The civil war seems aimed more at the nephew. “People were angry before. But that day united everyone,” says a rebel MLA on the staged applause drama.

Politics often comes full circle in unexpected ways. In a polity where cross-border migration is a hot-button topic, a personage who has doubled his number of crossings is now the centre of attention. First rising to prominence through the Students’ Federation of India, the CPI(M) nursery, he was once considered close to former CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. His career there had run into quicksand amid allegations of financial irregularities and a ‘posh’ lifestyle unbecoming of a communist.

But Ritabrata may have finally achieved what many veterans of the Left could not manage after 2011. Mamata ended the Left’s 34-year reign. Now, one of its stray comets crashes her party. As for Abhishek, days after a mob attack, he finds himself fending off arrest.