Sonali Guha, the former deputy Speaker of the Bengal Assembly and once one of the closest aides of chief minister Mamata Banerjee during her days as the main Opposition leader in state politics, made an impassioned appeal on Saturday to her former party chief to re-induct her into the Trinamul fold.

In a letter purportedly written by Guha and shared on her social media account, she confessed that quitting the Trinamul and joining another party was her “biggest mistake”.

“In an emotional moment, I took a decision as I was hurt and joined a party where I could not adjust myself. A fish cannot live without water, likewise I cannot live without you. Didi, I am seeking your forgiveness, please forgive me…,” the letter reads.

One of the rabble-rousers in the Trinamul ranks who can outshout most of her political opponents, Guha was the sitting MLA from Satgachhia Assembly constituency which was once represented by late chief minister Jyoti Basu.

On March 5, after Mamata announced the list of candidates for the 2021 Assembly polls, the four-time MLA’s name was missing from the list.

Guha was largely unseen during the run-up to the Assembly polls.

“I was told to spread canards against Didi. I couldn’t do that. So I was silent,” she claimed.

Soon after joining BJP, Guha had told a private news channel she would expose Mamata.

Guha has a string of controversies surrounding her. In 2008, she had abused a police officer of Nodakhali police station in South 24-Parganas. She had threatened a doctor and his son in December 2014 over a dispute among residents of a housing complex. Her husband, Partha Basu, had led an attack on the Presidency University campus in April 2013.

Trinamul sources said one of the reasons behind Guha’s name being dropped was her testy ties with Diamond Harbour MP and Mamata’s nephew Abhishek.

While some from the Trinamul old guard are extremely protective of Abhishek, his relationship with others like Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikaryi have always been frosty. Incidentally, both Roy and Adhiakri are now in BJP.

Guha’s resignation from the BJP comes days after former footballer and MLA Dipendu Biswas quit the BJP. Like Guha, Biswas too was dropped from the list of candidates this time. He joined the BJP but was not given either a ticket nor asked to campaign for the party.

Most of the leaders from Trinamul who had joined the BJP and lost the elections are contemplating their political future since the BJP juggernaut has been stopped at 77 seats leaving the party nowhere close to forming a government. The renewed vigour with which the Narada sting operation case has been taken up is being seen as an attempt to destabilise the Trinamul itself and not just the government.