For the first time in 17 summers since its 2009 Lok Sabha ascent, the Trinamool Congress power centre at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street is facing what seems to be a never-ending night of long knives.
The electoral ink is yet to disappear from the index finger of most voters, but the party that ruled Bengal for 15 years is imploding.
Thursday's first blow came from Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for permission to file a complaint against her Trinamool colleague, Sreerampur MP Kalyan Banerjee, for alleged misogyny and verbal abuse.
"I seek your permission to lodge a formal complaint to you for redressal... (Kalyan) has repeatedly verbally abused me inside the Lok Sabha," wrote Ghosh Dastidar, a day after quitting all party posts and two days after being referred to as a "special MP" by her former colleague in the party and in Parliament, now the BJP chief minister, Suvendu Adhikari. "This misogyny has been against many lady members and needs to be punished."
Lawyer-parliamentarian Kalyan, never one to let go of a jab, immediately accused Ghosh Dastidar of corruption.
A few hours later, physician-former parliamentarian Santanu Sen claimed to have finally hit his limit and resigned as the national spokesperson of the party in a direct indictment of the 2024 RG Kar rape and murder. "Now, when people have rejected us over the RG Kar incident, job scams and various other unethical acts, my conscience no longer permits me to support these as a spokesperson," said Sen.
Both Sen and Ghosh Dastidar are former students of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Ghosh Dastidar had offered similar reasons in her resignation letter to Trinamool state president Subrata Bakshi on Wednesday.
Close on Sen's heels, Calcutta councillor Arup Chakraborty emailed his resignation as spokesperson to Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. "If we cannot even begin to accept defeat, previous victories become false. Party workers are now in danger. Where are their leaders now?" he asked.
The most dangerous fire was lit by lawyer-spokesperson Biswajit Deb, who bypassed the usual euphemisms to attack the party's very heart: former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek.
"This party will smash itself into tiny, unrecognisable pieces very soon," Deb predicted. "So much institutionalised corruption took place — can anyone believe that Mamata or Abhishek knew nothing?"
Going a step further, Calcutta councillor Tarak Singh directly demanded the overhaul of the TMC leadership.
A fierce Mamata loyalist, but never an Abhishek fan, Kalyan Banerjee delivered a cut that the party's top duo might consider the unkindest. "Who made Arup Chakraborty a leader? Abhishek Banerjee. Therefore, he is responsible for all this. Those whom Abhishek created (or elevated) as leaders are the ones now speaking against him," he said.
Amid all this, Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh, who has survived more suspensions and other disciplinary actions than most leaders have terms, is the unlikely unifying voice, urging a return to the fold even as he acknowledges the rot. Ghosh, who initially questioned the leadership in an internal meeting of Mamata and Abhishek with MLAs on May 19, has since said that this is not the time for party leaders to wash dirty linen in public or settle scores.
As Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the octogenarian warhorse who was Trinamool's first-ever MLA, summons current MLAs to Mamata’s residence this Sunday, the air in Kalighat is heavy with the sense of a bitter, bloody denouement. He is expected to urge unity to a room of 80 MLAs, at least half of whom are allegedly looking for exits.
Trinamool's longevity is not just under threat; it is being dismantled by the very people supposed to protect it. Indeed, for the party that ended 34 years of Left rule, the time is out of joint.
