What is ailing thee, woe-begone Commander-in-Chief?

Wounds of the state assembly poll debacle are yet to heal; but jolts, dime a dozen, have been raining on the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) national commander Mamata Banerjee in breakneck pace at home as well as in the national capital.

If sleuths of the Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) raided this morning the TMC party office adjacent to her Kalighat home in connection with the case of forged signature, she was handed out a shock advice to merge her party with the Congress during a meeting with the Congress thinktanks Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi.

Coming as it does in the wake of back-to-back internal setbacks, she has been caught in a cleft stick after ‘marauders’ have resorted to dismantling her pack of MLAs and MPs in a systematic ambush beyond her control.

Jolt at New Delhi

During her meeting with the Congress top brass, INC national spokesperson and a prominent Dalit Congress leader Udit Raj lobbed the ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’ ball at her and went to the extent of advising her to merge the party with the Congress.

“Sometimes the saying 'as you sow, so shall you reap' proves itself true. Now Mamata Didi should stand by this alliance (INDIA) with sincerity. If she wishes, she can even merge her party with the Congress — but that decision rests entirely with her," Raj said.

The sharp attack from Raj must not be misconstrued as one that would dissolve overnight or did not have any veiled authorisation from the Congress national leadership.

Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, Mamata’s long time bete noire, observed significantly: “Strike the iron when it’s hot.”

What Choudhury didn’t say in too many words was this could be the most opportune moment to permanently weaken Mamata who has not only been facing the worst political turmoil since the birth of TMC, but had also been responsible for poaching the Bengal Congress end number of times and painstakingly ensured its abject decay in West Bengal.

Trinamool Congress, it may be mentioned, was founded by Mamata Banerjee on January 1, 1998 after she broke away from the Indian National Congress to form an independent platform dedicated to grassroots-level (trinamool) politics.

Even the TMC party symbol, reports have emerged, was allegedly purloined by Ms Banerjee from a painter who was initially asked to draw it by late union minister Ajit Panja.

Udit’s Charges

Udit Raj alleged that the TMC commander in close tandem with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was busy blocking Rahul Gandhi from becoming the unanimous leader of INDIA alliance. And that’s the reason she has now been reaping the consequences of her own actions.

Had Mamata, along with Arvind Kejriwal, accepted Nitish Kumar as the coordinator of the INDIA alliance, the BJP's seat count in the Lok Sabha elections would have fallen below 150 — and Narendra Modi would not have been able to become Prime Minister for the third time.

"It is because of the actions of Mamata Didi and Kejriwal that Modi became Prime Minister. They are now facing the consequences of their own deeds. Nitish Kumar had travelled across the entire country, building a positive atmosphere for the INDIA alliance. But these two refused to let him become the alliance's coordinator. As a result, he was forced to leave the coalition. Had that mistake not been made, the BJP would have been capped at fewer than 150 seats. Instead, those two were focused on blocking Rahul Gandhi," Raj contended.

And in their effort to sideline Rahul Gandhi, they ended up ‘shooting themselves in their own feet,’ the INC spokesman added.

Turmoil at Her Backyard

At her backyard, Mamata Banerjee has been encountering uphill challenges to the urban power structure of her party amid growing uncertainties over the future of senior party leaders occupying crucial mayoral positions. The development follows the resignations of Firhad Hakim and Krishna Chakraborty from the Kolkata and Bidhannagar Municipal Corporations last week, triggering fresh speculation over the party’s municipal leadership.

In another major setback for Banerjee, at least 14 lawmakers led by TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar reportedly met in Delhi and discussed the possibility of breaking away from the party in the presence of senior BJP leader and West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.

Significantly, the meeting took place barely three kilometres away from the venue where Mamata Banerjee was attending a meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

The rebel TMC parliamentarians held a two-hour meeting at the residence of Union minister and BJP’s Bengal election observer Bhupender Yadav. Later in the evening, the group reconvened at the residence of four-time Birbhum MP Shatabdi Roy.

The dissident faction, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar announced, had decided to extend support to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). “Nearly 20 TMC MPs, including me, have decided to support the NDA for the development of Bengal. We will soon write to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and formally convey our support to the NDA,” claimed the four-time MP, who also resigned all her party posts last week.