Suvendu Adhikari holding the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) flag yesterday on stage alongside Union Home Minister Amit Shah must have sent shockwaves across West Bengal, particularly among the TMC’s top ranks, which is comprised mainly of three individuals now – Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and number cruncher Prashant Kishor. So powerful was yesterday’s visuals from Amit Shah’s gigantic rally attended by a sea of people, that the TMC very well stares at the prospect of having a mutiny among its ranks against the top leadership.
It is not an overstatement by far that the TMC might have to deal with a massive mutiny in the near future. In fact, there are strong reasons to believe the same. It is not as if Suvendu Adhikari left the TMC without a strong message to all other party workers. Being the second most important leader of the TMC until a few weeks ago, Adhikari wrote an emotive letter to all TMC workers, urging them to join hands with him and “start a new beginning.” He added in the letter, “Our fight is to restore West Bengal to its glory.”
According to Adhikari, the TMC is now filled with individuals who do not bother about anyone but themselves. He also asserted that the party was not built in one day with the contribution of one person. On the issue of TMC resorting to ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ politics in the state, Adhikari wrote, “Shame on the TMC for such narrow politics.” He also said in no uncertain terms that the BJP was all set to win the upcoming polls in the state. And that the TMC will be defeated.
Now, when someone of Suvendu Adhikari’s stature emphatically states that the TMC does not stand a chance in the upcoming polls, it is bound to send leaders of the TMC into a streak of panic attacks. Further, his letter, where he takes potshots at Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee will invigorate a sense of courage among the subverted TMC cadre to question their supreme leaders for the mess they have put the party in. Their natural instinct, of course, would be to jump ship and join the saffron party.
Read more: Suvendu Adhikari resigns and triggers an exodus of top TMC leaders. Mamata watches helplessly
But here’s the catch. The BJP is not in a mood to welcome just about any Tom, Dick and Harry into its fold, thus diluting its own composition in the state. The saffron party is treading very cautiously on the issue of inducting TMC leaders into its own ranks. Case in point is the ex-Asansol civic body chief Jitendra Tiwari, who on Friday withdrew his resignation from the party and his post, apologising for his statements ‘disavowing Trinamool’, saying that he is very much with the TMC. This was after MP Babul Supriyo expressed his strong reservations over the prospect of Tiwari joining the BJP after having ‘tortured’ and ‘tormented’ the party’s workers.
With the BJP not accepting just about any TMC leader into its fold, and TMC leaders definitely not joining parties like the CPI(M) and Congress, Mamata Banerjee will soon find ‘her’ party saturated with people who no longer have unwavering faith in her leadership, and who in general, feel a sense of disgust towards Abhishek Banerjee. It is here that Mamata Banerjee and her nephew will increasingly find their authority being challenged, resulting perhaps in an inner-party mutiny of sorts.
Read more: Suvendu will directly and Owaisi will indirectly help the BJP crush Mamata Banerjee’s rule
Mamata Banerjee’s TMC is being pulverised by the BJP in the run-up to the all-important state assembly elections early next year. Sources indicate that there are at least two more planned waves of joining which the BJP will be organising on the same scale, or with even greater grandeur, welcoming a variety of political leaders mainly from the TMC into its fold as the elections for the crucial state come closer.