Lonely crusade, a loyal old guard: Mamata Banerjee's 1st protest after TMC's rout

Mamata Banerjee's first street protest after the TMC's electoral defeat drew a sparse turnout from party leaders, with veteran loyalists dominating the stage. The dharna offered a glimpse into the party's shifting power dynamics as Banerjee sought to rally supporters and signal a political fightback.

In Short

• Banerjee left Kalighat after a closed-door meeting with senior loyalists
• She offered floral tributes at Ambedkar and Gandhi memorials en route
• Police denied formal permission, but heavy security ringed the protest venue

In a striking departure from past displays of party solidarity, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s latest demonstration in Kolkata saw a dismal turnout of party lawmakers on Tuesday.

The visual of a sparsely attended protest stage highlights a shifting political landscape in West Bengal, just a month after the party lost power in the state to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Banerjee, whose political career has been defined by high-stakes street protests and dharnas both as an opposition leader and as chief minister, launched her latest demonstration at the Y-Channel venue in Dharmatala at around 2 pm.

However, the usual sea of party heavyweights was notably absent. Having covered Mamata Banerjee up close since 2006, I knew the best place to gauge the mood was where it all begins: her iconic residence at Kalighat.

Arriving around 1 pm, my video journalist Subhojit Gain and I noticed an immediate shift in the security protocol this time --we were actually allowed to reach right up to the gate of her residence.

Inside, a closed-door meeting was already underway. The attendees list spoke volumes: Madan Mitra, Dola Sen, Kunal Ghosh, Subhashish Chakrabarty, Kalyan Banerjee and Asima Patra. These were the veterans -- the street fighters who built the party from the ground up.

At exactly 1:55 pm, the former chief minister stepped out of her residence and entered her car, accompanied by Kalyan Banerjee and Kunal Ghosh.

Subhojit and I rushed to our vehicle, tailing her convoy. We knew she was heading towards Y-Channel to participate in the dharna. Because of her status as the former CM, her convoy moved through a strict traffic green channel, and we stayed right on her bumper.

Then came the first detour. At around 2:12 pm, as the convoy approached Red Road, Mamata’s car suddenly came to a halt.

She walked down to the statue of BR Ambedkar, offering a floral tribute alongside a copy of the Constitution of India. Just as she started to leave, the convoy took a sudden U-turn, cutting down Dufferin Road.

By 2:21 pm, she stopped again, this time at the Gandhi Murti, offering flowers to Mahatma Gandhi alongside the accompanying leaders.

I tried to approach Mamata for a quick interview, but her frustration was palpable. Visibly angry, she refused to comment, walking straight back to her car before heading directly to Y-Channel.

Interestingly, the dharna had officially been denied permission by Kolkata Police. Yet, in classic Bengal fashion, no one stopped her from holding it. Instead, the area was heavily fortified with a massive deployment of both Kolkata Police and central forces.

When her car finally rolled up to the protest site around 2:30 pm, a wave of excitement rippled through the crowd of a few hundred TMC supporters who had gathered.

This was Mamata’s first public appearance at a political programme since the devastating poll debacle. The elements were not kind.

It was suffocatingly hot and humid, and the space at Y-Channel was incredibly narrow for a public meeting. It took nearly half an hour for the chaos to settle before Mamata could even begin her main address.

Standing there, watching the leaders take their places on the stage, I felt a sudden rush of deja vu, taking me back to the Singur protests early in my career.

Barring Mukul Roy and Sovon Chatterjee, the faces looking back at the crowd were almost identical to those from a decade and a half ago: Madan Mitra, Kalyan Banerjee, Firhad Hakim, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Dola Sen, Asima Patra, Sobhondeb Chattopadhyay, Derek O'Brien and Ashok Deb.

It was a gathering dominated by the party’s veterans. The faces from tinsel town, the sports icons and the intellectual fraternity who once crowded her stages were entirely missing.

It made me realise that in the worst of times, the old had truly turned to gold. For years, leaders like Madan Mitra had been relegated to the back seat ever since political strategy firm I-PAC took control of much of the party’s functioning.

Yet today, a towering leader like Mamata, who has given countless people their break in public life, stood largely abandoned by many of those newer faces.

As anticipated, she delivered a fiery political speech, launching a direct attack on the BJP. But the real story was in the crowd.

When I spoke to some of the supporters who had gathered, many openly expressed their deep anguish over the inception and influence of I-PAC.

Despite the bitterness of the recent defeat, however, their loyalty to the top remained unshaken; they seemed completely confident that the TMC would resurrect itself under Mamata Banerjee’s sole leadership.

The brutal weather eventually took its toll.

At around 5:45 pm, Kunal Ghosh fell ill due to the intense humidity. In a characteristically maternal gesture, Mamata began fanning him herself, clearing a path for him to leave the stage safely.

At 6 pm, Mamata left the venue, drawing a close to the day’s dharna. But as her car pulled away, her parting message to the remaining supporters was clear: she would continue to fight on the streets against the policies of both the Centre and the new state government.

- Ends