Mamata elected unopposed as TMC chairperson

Didi urges her party’s rank and file to work harder to make Trinamul even stronger in Bengal and ensure all 42 Lok Sabha seats from state

Trinamul Congress delegates garland Mamata Banerjee after her election as the party’s chairperson at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Calcutta on Wednesday: The Telegraph Picture

Meghdeep Bhattacharyya   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |    03.02.22  : Mamata Banerjee was elected unopposed as the chairperson of the Trinamul Congress on Wednesday, after which she reaffirmed her commitment to expand the party beyond Bengal. 

In her 44-minute speech before the gathering of 1,500-delegates of the party who participated in the election at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, the Bengal chief minister addressed a number of issues, while underscoring her national aspiration for the party, to be fulfilled in the role it plays in ousting the BJP from power at the Centre.

Mamata urged her party’s rank and file to work harder to make Trinamul even stronger in Bengal, to ensure all 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state are won in the next general election. Peppering her address with statements in Hindi, with the clear intent of reaching a wider audience beyond Bengal, Mamata trashed the Union Budget for allegedly not having even a word in favour of the masses. Some of her main areas of thrust follow.

Target BJP

The Bengal chief minister repeatedly attacked the BJP over the Centre’s alleged mishandling of the economy, taking it to task over the monetisation of national assets and sale of PSUs, the state of the public banking sector, and the lingering impact of demonetisation. She also was unsparing on the saffron ecosystem’s divisive agenda and the adverse impact the BJP-led Centre has allegedly had on key areas, ranging from national integrity to freedom of the press. Accusing the BJP of trying to make the nation forget its history, geography, traditions and heritage, Mamata also alleged misappropriation of funds.

“In the name of PM-Cares alone… lakhs of crores taken,” she said. “Three gems of the BJP, ED, CBI and  (money). Everything else, awnawrtho (meaningless)…. The country cannot be run like this. The people’s fundamental rights are being snatched…. Very bad days ahead.”

“Unresponsive” Cong

“It is a cause for sadness to me, that the Congress helps out the BJP with votes in Meghalaya, Chandigarh, and elsewhere…. We had sought that all those in the anti-BJP front, that they come together as one. But if somebody does not heed that, sits tight with pride, then there I follow the path shown by Rabindranath Tagore,” said Mamata, in the wake of the Congress having purportedly turned down her party’s “concrete proposal” for an alliance.

“Snoopgate”

“Say anything… Pegasus will be unleashed. It has been proven that phones of PK (poll consultant Prashant Kishor), Abhishek… have been tapped,” said the Trinamul chief. “We want justice. If there is no justice, there will be reign of fear, through the misuse of Pegasus…,” she added.

Jagdeep Dhankhar

Mamata once again tore into the Raj Bhavan occupant — apparently referring to him by the use of an unrelated phrase in Bengali that means a herd of horses — accusing him of exceeding his brief. “They (the BJP) have given a (the phrase)... they sent him to rule the state…. No sense of timing, only abusing me through the day, and, on top of that, sending everything to me through my official Twitter handle. I had tolerated it for long enough,” said Mamata, who blocked the Bengal governor from her Twitter account.

“Bengal supposedly doesn’t have democracy, peace, justice… Bengal supposedly only has murders, atrocities against women, violence. He is witnessing all of this from his room, using binoculars. Ask him, has he seen what has been going on in UP, in Delhi, in Tripura, in Gujarat? Has he even tried to see?” asked an irate Mamata of Dhankhar, who has been a fierce critic – often in virtual echoes of the BJP and other constituents of the saffron ecosystem -- of the state government and most of its initiatives since being sent as governor in 2019. Scores of Trinamul leaders – right up to Mamata – have repeatedly accused him in public of being a BJP stooge.

“I have to give justifications (to his queries)…? Many things come to mind in response, but I have to control myself…. He says he will instruct, his instructions have to be followed. Not even ever elected as a councillor in your life… changed parties 10 times,” said the chief minister.

“Now you are saying “dekh lengey (will see, commonly deemed a threat)”…. You cannot call officers without the permission of the chief minister, this is called a democracy, democratic system,” she added. “At 10am, he orders the police commissioner to meet. At 11am, the chief secretary. At 12pm, the home secretary. At 1pm, (a five-star hotel in Alipore)… because he has to eat. All day, doing these things, no work whatsoever. A shawbjanta (know-it-all).”

A few hours after Mamata’s criticism, Dhankhar responded with a statement of protest, defending himself.

Call for intra-Trinamul unity

“You have to promise me this today… no conflict within. Will you? There is just one party, the Trinamul Congress, will you remember? There is nothing other than the party,” said the chief minister, amid certain recent instances of public disagreement between sections of the leadership over Abhishek and his “Diamond Harbour model” of pandemic-mitigation. Besides, intra-party rivalry, even bitter factional feuds have been a chronic headache for Mamata since her party ascended to power in 2011.

Mamata went on to say: “When I was coming here today, I received word that seven-eight more BJP MLAs want to join. They can certainly work with us for development. Many, many more want to come.”

“Nothing to be done by use of force, nobody is to be brought by force. We will do it with love,” she added, in what would surely be a cause for greater worry to the beleaguered Bengal unit of the BJP, having effectively been reduced to 69 MLAs already, after winning 77 in the 294-seat Assembly last summer.