Defection scare haunts TMC

BJP claims several Trinamool Congress leaders are in talks to join saffron party

Trinamool Congress MP Subhendu Adhikari was visibly embarrassed recently when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was aware that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had approached him to join the party or else he would be arrested.

The chief minister told him some party leaders were under the impression that they were bigger than the party. “Action will be taken if someone thinks so. If someone wants to leave the party, they are free to go,” she told the MP.

According to observers, this could be a deliberate attempt by Banerjee to show the likes of Adhikari their place. However, it has triggered a buzz in the political circles. The BJP had claimed that many TMC leaders were in touch with it.

“There are many TMC leaders who are in touch with us. If a right-minded person wants to quit the TMC, which has become synonymous with Saradha scam, we will happily welcome them with due respect,” BJP state president Rahul Sinha said.

So far, former TMC MP Sucharu Ranjan Halder is the only notable name who has shifted loyalty to the BJP, apart from many grassroot workers across districts like Nadia, North 24 Paraganas, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar.

Banerjee has good reasons to feel worried about the development. When Halder quit the TMC, the party was quick to respond, saying the former party MP would not have won even a municipal election without Banerjee's backing. But with the father-son duo (Shishir Adhikari and Shubhendu Adhikari — both Lok Sabha MPs), the party will have to think twice because the Adhikaris call the shots in East Medinipur.

Earlier, Subhendu Adhikari, who was heading the youth wing of TMC for a long time, lost the post to Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee. This seems to have not gone down well with Adhikari, also the chief architect of Nandigram movement, along with the Singur land movement which catapulted TMC to power in 2011.

There are other voices of dissent as well. There is a rumour that the Saradha crisis might split TMC.

On the issue of Jadavpur University students' protest, state Cabinet members such as Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee and Consumer Affairs Minister Sadhan Pandey have openly spoken against the party line suggesting the vice-chancellor should resign, though the party high command thinks otherwise.

Mukherjee, who has often shifted political loyalty in his 40-year political career and has the rare achievement of being the mayor of Kolkata as a Trinamool representative and Congress MLA at the same time, recently questioned the party's decision on both Jadavpur and handling of the Saradha chit fund scam, internally as well.

“Dada (Subrata Mukherjee) seems to have some plan,” noted a TMC worker close to him.