Rancour and finger-pointing by leaders marred the 27th foundation day of the Trinamool Congress on the first day of the new year even as party supremo Mamata Banerjee and second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee met in the evening to paper over the cracks.
Leaders like party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh who are allied with Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee took on the senior leaders of the party and criticised them for their errors.
“Why are the top four-five senior Ministers soft on the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari even though he is attacking Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee in the foulest language?” questioned Kunal Ghosh.
Meanwhile, long-term Mamata associate and MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay stoked the fire by telling supporters that apart from Mamata Banerjee, there was no other credible leader in the party.
Another veteran leader and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, in a veiled vibe at Abhishek Banerjee’s supporters, said it was necessary for the newbies to know about the history and the sacrifices that the old guard of the party had made to bring it to power. He also admitted that “some leaders” had indulged in corruption but Mamata Banerjee was the “epitome of honesty”.
In retaliation, Kunal Ghosh questioned the inaction of the senior Ministers when the then Education Minister Partha Chattopadhyay was indulging in selling jobs for cash.
While Firhad Hakim told reporters that the Trinamool Congress was a united family under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee and would continue its fight together, party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh took pains to point out that while the CM was its leader, its general was MP Abhishek Banerjee.
Ghosh told reporters: “This is something akin to Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. Ramakrishna had many illustrious and famous disciples, but people wanted to know Ramakrishna’s thoughts, beliefs, philosophy and wisdom, more from Vivekananda’s mouth.
And that is what Vivekananda did, spread his word in India and the world.”
“Taking the same example, Mamata Banerjee’s struggle, sacrifice, development, beliefs, and faith are Trinamool Congress’s strength.
And people want to know more from Abhishek Banerjee. Mamata Banerjee has many followers, some very illustrious, but it is Abhishek who the people want to hear it from,” he said.
Reacting to the developments in the Trinamool Congress, BJP’s senior leader Dilip Ghosh quipped: “When corruption was hidden, everything was hunky-dory. Now they are saying, it is bad. This is the beginning of the end of the Trinamool Congress.
The foundation day is also the day when the death-kneel of the party has been sounded.”
CPIM leader Sujan Chakraborty said: “It is common knowledge that there is a massive fight going on within the Trinamool Congress over sharing of the loot from the many corruptions and the scams that they have done.”
“The Trinamool Congress is a circus party. In a circus, the people look at the antics of the jokers. All these people making these statements are nothing but that,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee, in a statement on X, said: “I humbly honour and respect the dedication and self-sacrifices of each worker and supporter of our party. Today, the TMC family is blessed with the love and affection of all,”.
Banerjee pledged to persist in her fight for the country›s common people.
«It is on the strength of your unflinching support that we shall continue to fight for everyone in this great democratic country. No surrender to any evil force. In defiance of all terror, we will continue our lifelong struggles for the common people of our country,” she wrote in a post on X.