Former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee had to, for the first time, listen in near-silence to three prominent Trinamool Congress MLAs — Kunal Ghosh, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha — who pulled no punches in directly criticising the supreme leadership since the party's crushing defeat in the Assembly polls.
This fairly unprecedented mutiny occurred shortly after the Election Commission data revealed Mamata trailed in 207 of the 267 booths of the Bhabanipur seat she lost to her former protege, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari.
Only 65 of Trinamool's 80 MLAs turned up at Mamata's Kalighat residence, and only seven absentees had informed the leadership of their inability to attend the meet.
Multiple sources from the meeting said Beleghata MLA Ghosh, Uluberia Purba MLA Ritabrata and Entally MLA Saha, perceived to be close to Trinamool national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek till the poll debacle, said the latter's choices, "imposed brutally" on the party, resulted in the electoral decimation.
"Jahangir Khan, the blessed child of the gloriously failed 'Diamond Harbour model', ran away. Why has he not been expelled yet? Why will Diamond Harbour remain a Union Territory (implying Abhishek's total control)? Why should the decisions remain above criticism?" one of the three, quoted as saying by a senior MLA, asked.
When the leadership tried saying the party's stand, distancing from Jahangir's decision not to contest from Falta, was posted on X, one of the three said: "Please tell me you're joking!"
"The aunt-nephew duopoly did not know what hit them. And they sat listening, mostly quiet. Jaws clenched, but quiet," this source added. "Funnily enough, this was soon after she (Mamata) made the lofty claim that the BJP will be gone from the Centre in the near future."
Mamata's image took a beating earlier in the day, as booth-wise data from Bhabanipur where Suvendu defeated her by 15,105 votes, showed she got fewer than 50 votes in 28 booths and trailed in 207 of 267 booths. Suvendu got fewer than 50 votes in 39 booths, but compensated elsewhere.
"The Ghosh-Ritabrata-Saha trio brought up the purported list of 43 properties belonging to Abhishek in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation area alone, lambasting the level of corruption. Bhaipo (nephew) suggested there could be namesakes, but they would have none of it," said a veteran. "One of them said 'Abhishek had said an electric crematorium will be set up in Falta, where those who die of heart attacks after May 4 will be cremated'. Who is setting up that crematorium now? Who will be cremated?"
This source added: "Kunal (Ghosh) said 'Enough is enough', and demanded a culture of free speech. He said enough of such meetings had taken place at her Kalighat residence, and we (Trinamool) should be hitting the streets to protect the poor and the helpless against the saffron bulldozer army."
Mamata reportedly tried to repeat her previous instruction to submit grievances against the party leadership in writing, but they laughed, the source said. "Although others were mostly quiet, many reached out to the trio later and said they had belled the cat and started a much-needed cleansing exercise in the party," the source said.