Cracks have started to appear within Mamata Banerjee’s party and her publicly chastising Mohua Moitra proves the same. The West Bengal Chief Minister, while addressing her party members during an administrative meeting held in Krishnagar on 9 December, ahead of municipal elections, acknowledged that internal rifts are emerging within the party.
During this administrative meeting that was also attended by elected representatives and municipal officials, Mamata Banerjee talked about infights among the party members in Krishnanagar with Jayanta Saha, who is the district president of the party. Questioning about these internal conflicts in the constituency, she slammed MP Mohua Moitra in front of all the representatives. Trinamool Congress supremo also gave a stern message to the Krishnanagar Constituency representative and warned her against creating further divides in TMC.
Banerjee has declared that the party will decide on the candidates for the upcoming municipal elections in the state and everyone should agree with the party’s decision without any disputes. Her sternness and warning to Mohua Moitra are probably meant to avoid possible clashes between senior party leaders and Moitra over the selection of candidates.
“Mahua, here I want to give a clear message. I don’t need to see who is supporting whom and who is against whom. Planting people to make some news on YouTube or other digital media against people one doesn’t like is a kind of politics that can work for one day but not forever. Again, a particular person will be in the same place endlessly is also not agreeable. And when elections come, the party will decide who will contest and who will not. So, one must not keep any type of difference of opinion in this matter. All should work together and I am saying so because I know,” said the state CM, and then turned towards Jayanta Saha demanding, “there was some noise in between, why was that.”
An embarrassed Mahua Moitra couldn’t come up with words to present her point further and kept nodding in agreement after “didi” reprimanded her, appearing rather taken aback at the public humiliation. Banerjee went on to claim that she has been able to find out the truth after employing the police and cross-checking the “issue” being discussed by the ADG Law and CID.
This leaves us guessing if the Chief Minister of West Bengal is using the state resources like the state police and CID to investigate the trivial and petty infights within the Trinamool Congress? These public officials are being paid their remuneration through tax money of the residents of Bengal and they are busy serving the interest of the reigning political party, is the impression we get from Mamata Banerjee’s monologue.
This is the second time the TMC matriarch has disclosed how she uses the state machinery and administration to cater to her political party’s interest instead of serving the people of Bengal. Earlier she had stated that the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police will be investing their crucial time in reviewing the reports published by rural newspapers and verifying if they are writing positively about the state government’s projects. This appears to be an utter misuse of power by the state Chief Minister.
Further, as per reports, an inner conflict has sprung up between MP Moitra and District President Jayanta Saha, Nadia North District President Naresh Saha, and Minister Ujjal Biswas.
Allegedly, Moitra works at her discretion without other party leaders in the district. Local leaders have also leveled allegations against the MP to a senior leader of the party when he visited the district. It is being claimed that the differences began after Moitra’s responsibility was extended to the entire Nadia district after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Mamata Banerjee has commanded that all party leaders should work together for the municipal elections and has instructed district administration officials, BDOs, and other officials to maintain communication channels with each other.
