editor_nz
It seems there has been a political earthquake in West Bengal, which caught the nation’s eyes. The big question on everyone’s mind is whether Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has split? And might the situation in West Bengal be resembling Maharashtra’s with the splitting up of the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)?
But it now seems as though a revolt among the TMC has broken open, according to reports. As many as 58 members of the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal, led by expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, have allegedly held a meeting with the Speaker of the Assembly, claiming to be the “real” legislative arm of the party. Ritabrata Banerjee has also been recently reported to be elected as the leader of the rebel camp.
This development is being seen as a big blow to Mamata Banerjee. The simple answer: the TMC now has 80 MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly, and if 58 are indeed in the camp of the rebels, then it will surpass the two-thirds mark. This is a crucial threshold under the anti-defection legislation in India, says the political observers.
However, how did this rebellion start?
The roots of the crisis can be traced back to the expulsion of two legislators of TMC, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, from the legislature, it can be said. The party alleged that they were involved in “anti-party activities” and thus expelled them from the party. After they were ejected, rumblings of discontent inside the party started to become more apparent.
It got serious and the TMC leadership took a major step in its organizing. The party dissolved several important committees and frontal organizations, which are widely seen as an effort to regain control on the rising discontent within the party.
Not only that, the rebel legislators have not directly challenged Mamata Banerjee. Some reports said that the rebels have said that they are still loyal to Mamata Banerjee. But they allege that they have great differences on how the party works, how decisions are made and who’s in charge within the group.
However, Mamata Banerjee has been firm in her opposition to the rebels, calling them as “Mir Jafars” which is a derogatory term used in the Indian political parlance for traitors. This is a sign of party leadership that the revolt is a betrayal and not just an internal difference.
The next big issue is whether the TMC will officially split. Will Banerjee-led Ritabrata Banerjee group try to make itself the genuine TMC? Not to mention the political future of West Bengal and perhaps even national politics till the 2029 elections that this revolt might have a bearing on.
This is more than a party skirmish, political analysts say. They say the incident is a bigger test of leadership, succession and power-sharing in the political parties of the region. Some analysts are already likening it to the split in Shiv Sena and NCP in Maharashtra.
It is a very volatile and fascinating political scenario at the present moment in the state of West Bengal. On one hand is Mamata Banerjee, a leader who has been in the forefront and strengthened the TMC for over 20 years. On the other side are rebel legislators who claim to have the support of a majority of the party’s elected representatives.
Now all eyes are on the next step of the Assembly Speaker, the approach taken by the rebel group and the reactions of the Mamata Banerjee and the TMC leadership.
Will Mamata Banerjee overcome this challenge? Is the TMC about to split up significantly? Or will the rebel movement wane and die out?
These questions and the answers can influence the future course of politics in West Bengal for years.
