Kunal Ghosh: The unguided missile, a key cog in Trinamul’s political wheel

‘I was unhappy with some things and had to speak,’ says Ghosh who seems even more emboldened now that he no longer holds any party post. ‘The party was unhappy with what I said. I have distanced myself a little’

(L-R) Abhishek Banerjee, Kunal Ghosh and Mamata Banerjee.: TTO Graphics.

Arnab Ganguly, TT, Calcutta, 03.05.24 :  The chronicle was foretold but the timing has taken political Bengal by surprise.

It began with minor skirmishes. Abhishek Banerjee, the heir to Didi’s political empire, is known to be impatient. For a while he has been targeting the explosion of movie stars in TMC politics. He has no problem with full-time politicians coming from the entertainment background. But he thought the glamorous TMC brigade in the Lok Sabha were first movie stars and politicians only next.

Also, he has little time for the elderly “has beens” like Sougata Roy, four-time MP from Dum Dum, and Sudip Bandopadhyay, the five-time MP from North Calcutta. They should give way to the next generation, the nephew was believed to have said.

Aunt Mamata Banerjee did not wholly agree. The more glamorous contestants were not given Lok Sabha tickets this time. But others got the ticket and there were fresh entries. But, a whopping one-third of women candidates were from the entertainment sector.

TTO Graphics.

Didi had her own reasons. The TMC is riven by factions in many districts. Giving tickets to an outsider and a movie star will make them less unhappy. Rather an outsider than losing to rivals. But Didi does not tolerate opposition from the party or from her nephew.

Then Gaza like bombing began. Deb, a superstar who has seen better times and has won twice from the south Bengal constituency of Ghatal, was the provocation. Deb himself did not wish to contest, but Didi suspected he was in touch with the BJP. She persuaded him to contest and even forced her nephew to request Deb.

The story took a curious turn here. Mithun Chakraborty, the aging superstar of Bollywood, is a local favourite being the only Bengali national figure after Saurav Ganguly. Mithun was a Didi nominee in the Rajya Sabha but switched sides and joined the BJP. Didi had called him a “gaddar”.

Professional affiliation runs deep in Deb’s vein. I do not like the use of words such as “gaddar”, he had said solemnly. Yet, Didi did not take umbrage and went on to campaign for Deb.

Then the drone attacks began. Abhishek Banerjee used Kunal Ghosh, a spokesman for the party, an unguided missile generally believed to be the public voice of the nephew. Ghosh thus punches above his weight. “We dare not say anything lest it antagonises the nephew,” said a senior Trinamul leader on condition of anonymity.

But Ghosh is irrepressible. He has found his second target: his old nemesis, the BJP MP from Calcutta North. Suitably inspired, Ghosh did himself one better. He attended a social event (blood donation camp) along with the BJP candidate in North Calcutta, Tapas Roy, who was till recently not just a star member of the Trinamul, but also a vocal critic of Ghosh for years. Roy had tried his best to be the Trinamul candidate himself. When that failed he joined the BJP.

At the event, Ghosh spoke a lot, praising Roy and even going on to say, tellingly, that this time Trinamul did not want “false votes” to be cast in Calcutta North, thereby casting aspersions on Bandopadhyay’s record of winning the seat since 2009. Rebuff came immediately. He was handed over a letter from Derek O’Brien telling him he was no longer one of the state secretaries of the party. Ghosh is understood to have made a face before mockingly referring to the party’s Rajya Sabha MP. “Quiz master,” he muttered, loud enough for all to hear.

Undeterred, Ghosh let loose another bombshell soon after, that too on television. “The party was well aware of the fact that large-scale corruption and extortion in lieu of jobs was taking place in the school education department. The party was aware of it even before the 2021 assembly polls,” he said in an interview to Bengali news channel ABP Ananda.

Ghosh did not mention names. But the Trinamul struck back within 24 hours. By Thursday afternoon, Ghosh’s name was struck off the list of the party’s star campaigners. But that further emboldened Ghosh, the proverbial ant which could drive the elephantine Trinamul crazy by his antics. A good writer and speaker, Ghosh is able to unleash all kinds of verbal missiles at will.

But Ghosh continues to hold other plum responsibilities. He runs the party mouthpiece and also looks after ā Bengali daily on Didi’s behalf. Clearly, he has powerful backers.

Since his release from prison in October 2016 (he was arrested in connection with the Saradha scam in 2013) and reinstatement in the party around four years later, Ghosh has cemented his position as a trusted aide of Abhishek.

“If someone says that I am being tutored to say these things, then the issues I am raising will become redundant,” Ghosh told The Telegraph Online. “I was unhappy with some things and had to speak. The party was unhappy with what I said. I have distanced myself a little.”

Bandopadhyay apart, Ghosh has had other Didi favourites in his line of fire, like, for instance, jailed ex-minister Partha Chatterjee, ex-MP Subrata Bakshi, candidate Kalyan Banerjee and mayor and state minister Firhad Hakim. Hence, hiding behind Ghosh’s diatribes is the answer to the question that has bothered the Trinamul rank and file in the last three years. How deep is the chasm between Didi and her nephew?

In the last four years, Ghosh has convinced many that like Abhishek, he too believes Trinamul needs to replace the old guard and some of Mamata’s personal favourites to stay ahead in the game. “Didi runs the party with an emotional connect. Abhishek wants to run it more in the manner of a corporate,” said a Trinamul leader, trying to make sense of the nephew’s line of thinking.

There are those in the Trinamul who believe Abhishek is hungry to take over the reins of the party, though no one is saying he would go the whole hog anytime soon. Side by side, Ghosh’s gradual return to favour has been the stuff of legends.

As the only Trinamul leader who publicly vilified Mamata when he was in jail, Ghosh’s rise has been nothing short of spectacular. Ghosh is also said to have played a key role in the rehabilitation of “renegade” bureaucrats. Nandini Chakravorty, a civil servant with lots of spunk, was shunted to dead posts such as secretary to the Governor. But she bounced back as a senior secretary after she paid obeisance to Ghosh.

All this may or may not be entirely true. But people believe in such stories. An impression is created. Soon that holds ground. And that’s what matters. Now that he’s no longer a star campaigner for Trinamul, Ghosh is making full use of his freedom. He has hit the road. “The issues that I am talking about, like the teachers’ recruitment scam (it was wrongly handled). The party will reap the benefits if it is solved. Trinamul leaders from the heart of the city have quit. They could have been stopped. I am not a policymaker. I am simply drawing the attention of the party,” he said.

Today, Kunal Ghosh is believed to be the “Nabi” to Abhishek’s “Allah”. And as long as Abhishek is all but inaccessible, Ghosh will remain a factor in Bengal politics.