Haemorrhage or Diarrhoea? A Rare Pestilence TMC Is Afflicted With

Haemorrhage or Diarrhoea? What kind of pestilence had Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress been afflicted with before its ignominious departure from power?

Perhaps, no state in India, let alone Bihar, could sink its reputation at this depth of nadir as West Bengal has done before the change of government after a 15-year uninterrupted rule since 2011 by the Trinamool Congress.

Not only unbelievable and shocking; the extent and sweep of skeletons of corruption amassed during this period has left the entire populace of state including a section of TMC supporters too, speechless.

Raids in swanky Trinamool party offices over a vast swath of city and districts of West Bengal have, for the past one week, been yielding huge cash, condoms and stacks of unaccounted government relief materials besides fake Atal Awas Jojona and Lakhmi Bhandar documents.

“Wherever you’re touching, it’s horribly stinking,” observed Suvendu Adhikari, former Mamata Banerjee confidant and chief minister of the new Bharatiya Janata Party government.

To cap it all, a sudden search in a private English medium school in Kanchrapara in North 24 Parganas yielded condoms in Students’ Sick Room and more than Rs 1.70 crore cash from the office locker this morning!

The governing body of the school, locals have alleged, is being run by three key Trinamool leaders who might have siphoned off money from various government schemes and stashed the same in the locker.

More than 25 TMC leaders of various stature are currently behind the bar while some have been absconding for fear of 'egg therapy’, currently in vogue in various parts of the state.

Is The Castle Mamata Built Disintegrating?

Abhishek Banerjee — nephew of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and sitting MP from Diamond Harbour — has become the lightning rod of a rebellion that now threatens to reduce the Trinamool Congress to rubble.

In what is shaping up as the most profound identity crisis in the party's history, senior leaders are walking away one by one, many of them pointing a finger at Abhishek as they go.

Mamata who built the TMC from scratch, now finds herself in an extremely humiliating position of having been abandoned by virtually her entire elected caucus. Corruption apart, her nephew's arrogance and overbearing influence are the twin grievances cited by rebel MPs and MLAs alike.

The haemorrhage has been relentless. This week alone, Mamata lost a fourth Rajya Sabha MP — actress Koel Mallick who resigned on Thursday — following hard on the heels of Sushmita Dev's dramatic exit on Wednesday, blaming the party's "unbridled corruption" and "anarchical rule."

These departures are merely the latest wounds in an already grievous week. Inside the Bengal Assembly, a clean split has emerged, with 58 rebel lawmakers rallying behind Ritabrata Banerjee and his audacious bid for the Leader of the Opposition mantle.

In Parliament, meanwhile, MP Kakoli Ghosh made headlines this Monday by publicly embracing the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) claiming the support of 19 fellow MPs — precisely the threshold needed to sidestep the anti-defection law.

Amid the wreckage, Mamata sought counsel in New Delhi, meeting Congress veteran Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday. The encounter promptly set off a fresh round of speculation: could a TMC merger with the Grand Old Party be in the offing?

The Lethal Blow from Kalyan Banerjee

Yet even as that question hung in the air, the sharpest blow of all was being readied at home. On Thursday, Kalyan Banerjee — one of Mamata's most trusted lieutenants and a distinguished senior advocate — issued her a stark ultimatum: choose between him and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

At the heart of the discontent lies Abhishek's unchallenged pre-eminence within the party machinery — and, more corrosively, his perceived preference for the strategy consultancy I-PAC over the party's own battle-hardened cadres.

The old guard chafes at what they describe as a centralised, arrogant leadership style; at the systematic sidelining of those who built the movement; and at the outsourcing of candidate selection and internal strategy to hired consultants.

Kalyan Banerjee gave voice to this festering anger with characteristic bluntness. "I have spent 45 years in this profession," he told waiting journalists. "All these people worked under me as juniors. How can he humiliate me? I am his senior — in law and in politics both. He needs to understand that it is because of him that we lost. It is because of him that this party is in crisis. I will not tolerate disrespect."

Then, turning directly to Mamata in absentia, he delivered his ultimatum: "Didi, if you remain dependent on Abhishek Banerjee, then stay with him — and leave me. But if you part ways with him, I am with you. He has destroyed our party."

The sentiment encapsulates a wider truth because rebel lawmakers alleged that their signatures had been forged on official legislative documents transmitted directly to the Assembly Speaker — a brazen act that has triggered a CID probe.

And the needle of suspicion is on none other than Abhishek who is being currently interrogated by the sleuths.