Kolkata, Jul 18 (PTI) Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday challenged his dissidents who severed ties with the Mamata Banerjee wing of the embattled party to return, and offered to resign within an hour if they did.
Abhishek was responding to a question on the ever-increasing defections from the TMC in the aftermath of its assembly poll debacle, leaving Mamata Banerjee hanging by a thread as far as her control over the party, its symbol and funds are concerned and drastically reducing her strength in Parliament.
“Those who left the party and are now abusing or blaming me today, I challenge them to return to Didi. If they do, I will resign from my party post within one hour,” the Diamond Harbour MP said.
“But they will not do that. They have already struck a deal with the BJP. The arrangement is simple: leave the party, join the rebel camp or the BJP, seek protection from the ED, CBI and other investigating agencies, and then start blaming and abusing Abhishek Banerjee,” he added.
He dared the dissident leaders to face the investigating agencies instead of turning their backs on Mamata Banerjee.
“I also want to say something to those who leave their party the moment they receive a notice from the ED, CBI or any investigating agency. If you have done nothing wrong, then face the investigation,” Banerjee said.
Noting that he has been summoned repeatedly by the CID and other agencies, and a number of FIRs have been registered against him, the TMC leader said he did not run away.
“For us, protection from the ED or the CBI is not important. The only protection that matters is the trust and support of the people. If I ever bow before anyone, I will bow only before the people in a democracy, never before the powerful individuals sitting in Delhi. That is the principle on which I stand,” he added.
Abhishek argued that he was ready to accept responsibility for the 2026 poll defeat only if he is credited with the party’s victory in the parliamentary polls in 2024 when the party won 29 of the 42 seats it contested.
“Anyone who wants to return before the July 21 rally can come back, and I will ensure that they are accommodated. Those facing serious allegations should not expect political protection by changing sides, because the people will ultimately deliver the final verdict,” he said.
Abhishek’s offer, interestingly, came shortly after TMC MP and Mamata Banerjee loyalist Kalyan Banerjee declared that if any of the deserters are accommodated back, he will quit Trinamool Congress.
“I have told Didi (Mamata) that not one of these leaders, who turned their back on her, should be allowed re-entry. If they are allowed to come back, now or in the future, then I will be the first to quit this party,” Kalyan said at a TMC workers’ preparatory meeting in Bankura for the July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally.
Responding to Abhishek’s challenge, Akhruzzaman, the party’s chief whip in the assembly and a leader in the Ritabrata Banerjee camp, wondered why it took the MP so long to say this.
“We had repeatedly tried to tell Didi that she should choose between her blood relation and her dedicated workers. She chose the former, and now the damage is done,” said Akhruzzaman.
BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar said Abhishek’s comment “lacked credibility”.
“He had thrown many such challenges before, but never acted on them. It is up to the TMC leaders to decide whether they will trust his words or not. But I can guarantee this: the TMC will ultimately have no one in its fold except Pishi and Bhaipo (aunt and nephew),” he said.
Widespread rebellion has rocked Mamata Banerjee’s party – marked by resignations, switching of camps, defections to the BJP and leaders questioning organisational decisions and the manner in which the party was led – following its shock defeat in the assembly polls at the hands of the saffron party.
The latest to quit was TMC’s newly elected Rajya Sabha MP and actor-turned-politician Rukmini alias Koel Mallick, who resigned on Thursday without attending a single sitting in the Upper House.
Mallick’s resignation came in the wake of three former TMC MPs – Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev, and Prakash Chik Baraik – who defected to the BJP and were re-elected to the Rajya Sabha after receiving bypoll tickets for the vacant seats.
Besides the Rajya Sabha, the party’s strength in the Lok Sabha, too, has shrunk drastically after 20 rebel MPs – most of whom such as Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar were long-time associates of Banerjee – broke away from the TMC to merge with the lesser-known Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) and pledged support to the BJP-led NDA.
Closer home, the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction of the party has escalated the battle for Trinamool’s identity by consolidating rebel ranks, inducting senior leaders, and pressing his claim as the party’s legitimate leadership by seeking to gain control over its symbol and funds.
The growing desertions – which include top leaders and former Mamata-loyalists like Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Anubrata Mondal and Madan Mitra join hands with the rebels who call themselves ‘real Trinamool’ – have mounted pressure on the Banerjee-led ‘Kalighat Trinamool’, turning the internal split into a direct political challenge.
Both Mondal and Mitra had blamed Abhishek’s “high-handedness” as their trigger for severing ties with the TMC supremo. PTI SMY NN
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