Didi Faces Fresh Rebellion in TMC?

Trinamool Congress president and former Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee was seemingly disappointed to witness the meagre attendance of her party MLAs to the meeting called on Monday at her Kalighat residence.

After the TMC’s rout in the recently held Assembly elections, this is the first meeting of the party’s newly elected MLAs, called by her and the poor attendance, could have made her feel threatened.

The BJP’s victory in the state following ruckus over deletion of a whopping 2.7 million voters from the electoral rolls, during the controversial SIR exercise, has left the TMC is tatters, political experts say.

In addition, TMC general secretary and Mamata Banerjee (Didi) nephew Abhishek Banerjee was also attacked two days ago. The next day, another party MP Kalyan Banerjee was also assaulted.

The newly elected legislators meet called on Monday afternoon failed to take off as only 20 of the total 80 MLAs reached the venue.

The series of events after the TMC’s defeat could make Didi feel threatened over the party’s future prospects. Though TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh quickly dismissed the concerns saying that the MLAs were busy in leading protests against the authorities over alleged political violence and hence could not attending the meeting, TMC MLA Sandipan Saha, one of the 60 MLAs who failed to attend the meeting, questioned the process followed in the appointment of the party leader, deputy leader and chief whip in the Assembly.

He said that he wanted clarity on whether the procedural issues had been reviewed before another meeting was called. He said that the uncertainty was the reason for his not attending the Monday meeting called by Didi.

Saha’s statements exhibit the disagreement within the TMC over internal party procedures and Assembly-related appointments.

In this circumstance, the absence of the MLAs to the meeting points to a serious underlying problem, which Didi has to focus in the coming days.