Abhishek with Mukul at the Delhi rally. Picture by Yasir Iqbal

New Delhi, Oct. 16: Abhishek Banerjee today roared against Narendra Modi from Delhi’s protest square in what is being seen as a de facto coronation — watched meekly by Mukul Roy, some other Trinamul elders and Bhadru Singh.

Bhadru, who?

Bhadru Singh of Siliguri, who came along with 50 others from north Bengal to ensure that the capital spectacle of Mamata Banerjee’s nephew escaped the fate that befell the one the aunt had tried to showcase in vain before the Lok Sabha elections.

“Some 50 people have come from Siliguri. We were given reserved train tickets. A district leader organised everything,” Bhadru said at the Jantar Mantar venue, a strip of road far easier to fill than the Ram Lila Maidan Mamata had chosen and lived to regret in March.

At the Ram Lila Maidan, Anna Hazare had ditched Mamata who had to address mostly empty chairs — an unusual sight for Bengal’s biggest crowd-puller and a humbling reality check for her national ambitions.

Today, keeping Bhadru company was Arup Kar, who said he had come from the Sunderbans. “Our bus started on Monday morning and we reached Delhi on Wednesday night. Some 70 people have come in the bus,” Kar said.

They were lodged in a dharamshala in central Delhi.

Trinamul leaders said such buses had come from almost every district of Bengal — which meant that the majority of Abhishek’s audience was from his home state. Which also meant that the young politician, who had done a professional course in Delhi, had to liberally pepper his Hindi speech with sentences in Bengali.

The upshot: the Trinamul Yuva meeting clocked a turnout of at least 2,000. The actual crowd was bigger but some restless supporters chose to loiter around.

That the crowd count was playing on Abhishek’s mind was clear when he thundered: “Jo log soch rahe thhe sammelan mein log nahin aayenge, unko apne aankh se kaalaa patti hata ke dekhna chahiye (those who thought that there will be no crowd should remove the blinkers and see).”

In an unfortunate coincidence, Trinamul veteran Saugata Roy, sitting on the edge of the stage, was sporting dark glasses.

Although Roy is not known to have made any comments against Abhishek and there was little to suggest that the young politician was targeting him, the boast on the turnout was seen as a reply to some senior leaders who had sniggered and doubted his ability to carry off the event on the “national” stage.

Mukul, who was in charge of the flop Mamata-Anna show, equated Abhishek with his “son” but largely kept to himself on the stage. Initially, Abhishek was seen conferring with Subrata Bakshi and Sudip Bandyopadhyay while Mukul sat quietly in a corner. Later, Abhishek returned to sit beside Mukul, but for a brief while.

Many in the audience had left and the venue looked sparse when Mukul spoke at the end.

“Abhishek, who is like my son, along with some other youth members, organised this historic youth convention and I thank him from the deepest corners of my heart and bless him,” Mukul said.

The meeting was organised to articulate the anger of Trinamul’s youth wing at the manner in which the CBI was conducting investigations into the Saradha scam and central agencies were unilaterally probing the Burdwan blast.

The 27-year-old Trinamul MP, however, appeared to be using the opportunity to assert his control over party affairs. Abhishek strode on the stage with a wireless microphone and roared intermittently, imitating Mamata, as the seniors sat with an air of nonchalance.

“Modiji Swachh Bharat ka nara de rahe hain. Pehle apna party saaf karo aur phir Mamata Banerjee ke taraf dekho (Modiji has given a call for Clean India. He should first clean his own party and then look towards Mamata),” Abhishek said.

Neither Abhishek nor the other party MPs referred to the Saradha scandal or the Burdwan blast. The focus was on attacking the Modi government over price rise, communal disharmony and neglect of Bengal.

Mukul was among a couple of MPs who were allowed to speak from the stage. All of them hailed the nephew for staging the successful show.

If anyone was looking hard for undercurrents of competition, a clue came while Abhishek and Mukul referred to Trinamul’s national ambitions.

Mukul referred to the growth of the party outside Bengal, understandably under him. The Trinamul all-India general secretary said the party had MLAs in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and the northeastern states.

Speaking before Mukul, Abhishek announced that he would lead and organise such protests across the country. “Without asking anybody, we will organise such protests in different cities of India,” the heir apparent declared.