TMC MLA Madan Mitra crosses over to Ritabrata’s rebel camp

Mitra likened Mamata Banerjee to "Dhritarashtra and Gandhari" for what he alleged was her blind love for nephew Abhishek, whom he compared to Adolf Hitler.

Kolkata: Senior Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra on Wednesday, July 15, crossed over to the rebel camp led by Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, dealing another blow to beleaguered Mamata Banerjee’s faction as the TMC’s post-election crisis deepened, even as the legislator insisted that he had not quit the party.

Mitra likened Mamata Banerjee to “Dhritarashtra and Gandhari” for what he alleged was her blind love for nephew Abhishek, whom he compared to Adolf Hitler and branded “a political villain with criminal instincts”.

One of Mamata Banerjee’s longest-serving political associates and among the TMC’s founding-era leaders, Mitra announced that he was resigning from all national and state organisational committees functioning under the “Mamata Banerjee-TMC” camp, besides stepping down as the party’s chief whip in the assembly.

“I have only changed my room, not my house. I am very much in the TMC,” Mitra told reporters after meeting Ritabrata Banerjee in his assembly chamber.

Dressed in a white kurta and sporting his trademark dark sunglasses, Mitra declared that he would relinquish every organisational responsibility under the Mamata Banerjee-led faction while continuing as a TMC MLA.

“I am resigning from all national and state committees of the Mamata Banerjee TMC. I am also stepping down as chief whip. I was in the Trinamool and I remain in the Trinamool,” he said.

In one of his trademark metaphors, Mitra added, “Perhaps that room had a comfortable bed while this one has only a cot. I have chosen the cot.”

Told Mamata ‘sorry’ before switching: Mitra

The crossover came amid a widening rebellion centred on the leadership of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, with Mitra accusing him of reducing the organisation to a personality-driven outfit.

Mitra said he had informed Mamata Banerjee before switching camps.

“I sent her a WhatsApp message saying ‘Sorry’. She stood by us for years, and we also tried to contribute in our own way. I thank her for everything she has done. But she must decide whether she wants to pursue people’s politics or dynasty politics centred on her nephew,” he said.

The veteran legislator claimed he had urged the leadership to ask Abhishek Banerjee to “step aside for six months” after the TMC’s crushing defeat in the Assembly elections, but the proposal was rejected.

ED summons to wife and son did not influence decision, says Mitra

Dismissing suggestions that the ED summons issued to his wife and two sons had influenced his decision, Mitra maintained that Abhishek’s growing control over the organisation was the principal reason behind his exit from the Mamata camp.

“AB is more frightening than the ED. The main reason behind my decision is Abhishek. I was suffocating at the party. Trinamool belongs to its workers, not to any individual. It cannot be run in a dictatorial manner like Hitler. Leaders must go to the people,” he said.

Without naming Abhishek initially, Mitra said history would record that “one individual” had destroyed a party that had once won 213 Assembly seats.

The political buzz around Mitra had intensified after he met rebel MLA Sandipan Saha and his father, former MLA Swarnakamal Saha, on Tuesday night. Speculation gathered further pace after the ED summoned Mitra’s family members in connection with the alleged municipal recruitment scam.

While neither Mitra nor the rebel camp linked the summons to Wednesday’s developments, the issue quickly became part of the political battle.

Mamata defends Abhishek

Responding after Mitra’s crossover, Mamata Banerjee mounted a strong defence of Abhishek, against whom almost every prominent rebel leader has levelled allegations of high-handedness.

Apologising to the people “on behalf of the traitors”, she asserted that neither she nor her family had ever compromised for political survival.

Rejecting Mitra’s contention that Abhishek’s leadership had forced him out, she linked his decision to the ED summons issued to his wife and two sons a day earlier.

“The person who left today had informed us yesterday that he and his family had received a summons. We understood then that he might switch camps. Abhishek has nothing to do with his decision,” she said.

Without naming the BJP, the TMC supremo alleged that central agencies and the police have become instruments for engineering defections and dismantling her party.

Anubrata Mondal sharpens attack on Abhishek

If Mamata Banerjee chose to close ranks around her nephew, Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal, who has recently joined the rebel camp, sharpened the rebellion’s political attack.

Hours after Mitra’s crossover, the former Birbhum strongman alleged that Abhishek was responsible for his imprisonment in the cattle smuggling case and claimed he had repeatedly advised Mamata Banerjee to remove her nephew from the party’s leadership after the assembly poll debacle.

“Why did I go to jail? For whom did I go to jail? I went to jail because of Abhishek Banerjee,” Mondal said while heading to a meeting of the Ritabrata Banerjee camp.

Claiming Mamata Banerjee had called him four times after the election defeat, Mondal said he had urged her to “listen with your ears, not your eyes” and remove Abhishek from the organisation.

“I told her, ‘You don’t see with your eyes, hear with your ears. Correct yourself. Remove Abhishek from the party’,” he claimed.

Mondal, who was arrested by the CBI in the cattle smuggling case in 2022 and later lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail before securing bail, did not elaborate on the basis for alleging that Abhishek was responsible for his imprisonment.

Mitra was one of Mamata’s closest political associates

Mitra’s defection carries significance beyond legislative arithmetic. A founding-generation TMC leader, he remained one of Mamata Banerjee’s closest political associates through the party’s formative years and later served as transport minister before his arrest in the Saradha chit fund case in 2014.

Mitra’s crossover follows sustained attacks on the Diamond Harbour MP by senior leaders, including Kalyan Banerjee, and lends further weight to the contention of both the Ritabrata-led rebels and the Sudip Bandyopadhyay faction—which, along with 20 MPs, has joined the NCPI and backed the NDA—that the battle is centred on Abhishek’s growing control over the TMC rather than on Mamata Banerjee’s leadership.