Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday declared on the floor of the House that the Trinamool Congress was a "closed chapter", delivering a postmortem of his former mentor Mamata Banerjee's political career while she fought a parallel war for her party’s residual assets outside.
The chief minister, who was leading the Treasury benches' response to the gubernatorial address, mounted the scathing offensive that coincided with an unprecedented structural disintegration in Trinamool.
The former chief minister Mamata decided to summarily "suspend" at least eight of her loyalists for visibly crossing over to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel bloc.
"She will never be able to return to power," said Suvendu, who spent five years in the Congress and 20 years in Trinamool before switching to the BJP in 2020.
Mocking her recent Esplanade dharna, he added: "I told the police to give permission.... Hold rallies daily. No problem. But you will never be able to come back. That chapter is closed."
Suvendu’s speech focused heavily on institutional "irregularities" and what he termed the Mamata regime's "nepotism and limitless corruption". He also targeted Trinamool's rapid erosion, underscoring the desertion by 64 of 80 MLAs and 20 of 28 Lok Sabha members in seven weeks since May 4.
"This has not happened to any other party in India," the chief minister said, as "ashol (real)" Trinamool MLAs led by the leader of the Opposition, Ritabrata, staged a walkout.
Turning to ideological friction, Suvendu explicitly linked Mamata's electoral downfall to her alleged disrespect for Hinduism.
"A former chief minister says from the chair: 'I do not accept Ram temple'.... She called the Mahakumbh, 'Mrityukumbh'. The people of Bengal have given their answer. We opened the ledger and saw 'Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre' in Digha. We have removed the word 'Dham'. Nobody gave you the power to mess with the four Dhams," he said.
"That is why you yourself lost in Nandigram (in 2021), and this time you lost in Bhabanipur, too," added Suvendu. "That is why today you are sitting at home, listening to me speak here."
When Beleghata MLA Kunal Ghosh, one of the last remaining Mamata loyalists, urged Suvendu to take complaints against the Ritabrata-led rebel bloc seriously, the chief minister said: "We are not responsible.... This dismal fate is the result of arrogance, hubris, autocracy, insolence, appeasement, dynastic politics, and rampant corruption."
"You will not be able to stand up again," he added.
On Monday, Mamata submitted a freshly reconstituted national working committee list to the Election Commission of India, naming herself as the absolute chairperson. The filing was a direct counter-manoeuvre to the Ritabrata-led faction, which had convened at a star hotel in New Town the same day to form an "ashol" Trinamool national working committee and inform Nirvachan Sadan, abolishing the post of national general secretary held by Mamata's nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, and replacing her as chairperson with veteran Arup Roy.
Asked about Mamata's parallel list to the EC, Ritabrata delivered a curt dismissal: "I have nothing to say on this matter. May they keep well."
By Tuesday afternoon, refusing to await formal responses to showcauses issued to them, Mamata unilaterally suspended the core of her former frontline leadership. They included Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Arup Roy, Javed Khan, Rathin Ghosh, Biplab Mitra, Snehasis Chakraborty, and Sabina Yeasmin (all of whom are now part of "ashol" Trinamool).
At 10.45pm on Monday, Kalighat fired an emergency email to Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, attempting to strip Kolkata Port MLA Hakim of his floor leadership and nominate Kamarhati MLA Madan Mitra as the new chief whip. At 10.30am on Tuesday, Ballygunge MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay personally marched into the Speaker's office to deliver a hard copy of the directive. But the office flatly rejected the document, noting that because the entire factional split was currently sub judice, such matters couldn't be processed now.
Sources within the vastly diminished Kalighat camp confirmed that Mamata was currently locked in emergency consultations with legal experts to safeguard what remained of the party’s central apparatus. The immediate anxiety centres on retaining the jora phool symbol and insulating the party war chest estimated at no less than ₹1,100 crore, both of which the Ritabrata-led faction is preparing to claim.
A Trinamool MP still loyal to Mamata said that major changes in party governance were being implemented following the election rout and fragmentation.
“The biggest change is absolutely no association with any outside body (such as I-PAC) in its management. The party will be run only by its own organisations and members.... The party will be run as a collective,” he said.
“Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee will now be available, 3pm-7pm, at the Kalighat head office of the party, Monday-Saturday," he said.
The MP added that the party would be “slow in naming people to posts”.
Additional reporting by Pheroze L. Vincent in New Delhi
