Mamata Banerjee suffered more blows on Wednesday when Sushmita Dev resigned as a Rajya Sabha member, and it emerged that Lok Sabha members Mala Roy and Sayani Ghosh were among rebel Trinamool Congress MPs who wanted to sit as a separate bloc in the Lower House.
With Sushmita’s resignation, Trinamool’s tally in the Upper House came down to 11. At least four more Rajya Sabha members of Trinamool are likely to quit in the next few days
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray had earlier resigned as a member of the Upper House.
Kolkata Dakshin MP Mala Roy and Jadavpur MP Sayani Ghosh were both deemed unflinchingly loyal, even on Monday morning, to Mamata and her nephew, Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee. However, on Wednesday, it emerged that Mala and Sayani were among the MPs who had signed a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, seeking recognition as a separate bloc in the House.
Only on Friday, Mamata had formed new Trinamool committees with Sayani and Mala as the heads of the party’s youth and women wings, respectively. Sushmita had virtually joined the national working committee meeting, where Sayani and Mala were assigned the responsibilities.
“She (Mamata) is currently left with only Abhishek, Kalyan Banerjee, Mahua Moitra, Kirti Azad, Saugata Roy, Pratima Mondal, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, and Sajda Ahmed in the Lok Sabha,” said a rebel bloc leader.
“Of them, two more might switch sides in a matter of days,” he added.
He has said Rajya Sabha members are not being pushed for a two-thirds breakaway, as there is no need for the Tenth Schedule worries in the Upper House.
“The BJP now effectively has the support of 272 (out of 294) in the Bengal Assembly, factoring in the now 64-member ashol (real) TMC. That means every Rajya Sabha vacancy for Bengal — even if we can get all of their remaining 11 to resign — will be filled by the BJP,” explained the rebel.
“But in the Lok Sabha, a two-thirds majority was required to bypass the anti-defection law. And it has happened. There are 19 signatories already, with three more willing to sign,” he added.
By turning their backs on Mamata precisely when she needed them the most, the three women further compounded the Trinamool structural rout.
The 53-year-old Sushmita delivered the day’s most clinical, telegenic blow to Mamata’s remaining national credibility.
The former Silchar MP, who jumped from the Congress in 2021 to anchor Trinamool’s expansion outside Bengal, walked into the chamber of Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan on Wednesday morning to tender her resignation. Shortly after, she was photographed meeting the BJP’s Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (once her colleague in the Congress), signalling her imminent transition to the BJP.
Sources said she would return to the Rajya Sabha, this time with BJP support.
“It is probably the worst time to leave Mamata Banerjee, but I am entitled to think for myself,” she said.
“What prompted this decision is a very long story.... I don’t want to be in two boats,” added the daughter of Assam’s Congress stalwarts Santosh Mohan Dev and Bithika Dev.
“Everybody has the right to have a change of heart, and it shouldn’t be held against me. Because circumstances change in politics.... A girl’s gotta do what she’s gotta do. I’m sure as a senior, astute, and mature politician, she will understand that a change of mind happens.”
Ironically, perhaps, all this was happening while Mamata and Abhishek were purportedly being given proposals by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi of re-merging with the Congress for their survival — speculation that sources close to the aunt-nephew duo vehemently denied.
More importantly, the rebel bloc underscored that they were the ashol Trinamool and there was no consideration of a merger with the Congress.
“The question does not arise. We are ashol Trinamool, and we are definitely not merging with the Congress,” said Ritabrata Banerjee.
A visibly strained Sreerampur MP Kalyan once again attacked the desertions, labelling the synchronised exits an act of rank betrayal manufactured by the saffron regime’s financial and investigative machinery.
But such rhetoric counts for precious little against the cold, clinical weight of numbers.