At TMC rebels’ rally, MLA Madan Mitra gives Mamata one month to leave Abhishek’s hand

Kolkata, Jul 21: Senior Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra on Tuesday gave party supremo Mamata Banerjee a one-month ultimatum to “leave Abhishek’s hand” and reconnect with grassroot workers, while asking the TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to admit his “mistakes”. Speaking from a parallel July 21 Martyrs Day rally at Mayo Road organised by the Ritabrata Banerjee-led dissident TMC faction, Mitra attacked both Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee, accusing them of sidelining workers and allowing the organisation to splinter. He said, “I am giving Mamata Banerjee one month. Leave Abhishek’s hand and hold the hands of the Trinamool workers. The TMC is not Abhishek’s party; it belongs to the workers. Why should everything revolve around Abhishek?” “Who is responsible for this three-way split in the party? You weren’t made chief minister by Abhishek or film celebrities whom you adore, but by the lakhs of Trinamool workers who toiled for you,” Mitra added, addressing Mamata. The Kamarhati MLA said the party would welcome its supremo with open arms if she was willing to relinquish her support for Abhishek and return among her workers. Invoking the Mahabharata character who had blindfolded herself, Mitra said that Mamata Banerjee is now playing the role of Gandhari, suggesting that she was aware of developments within the party but had chosen to remain silent. “If she has the courage, Mamata should come to this stage and apologise. We will spread our scarves beneath her feet. She just needs to admit once that she behaved like Gandhari. No one will throw even an egg at you,” he said. Training his gun on Abhishek Banerjee, Mitra said, “You spoke of resigning within an hour of the rebels returning to Mamata. I am giving you two hours to walk here and admit that you made mistakes. No one will throw eggs at you. Admit that the party has gone down because of you, and you want to absolve yourself of that sin.” Questioning Abhishek’s use of private aircraft, the veteran MLA alleged that the money the TMC national general secretary spends on chartered flights and helicopters belongs to lakhs of party workers. Mitra, though, stopped short of furnishing proof behind his claim. The annual July 21 Martyrs’ Day observance, which commemorates the 1993 police firing that killed 13 Youth Congress activists during a protest led by Mamata, witnessed an unprecedented show of division this year, with three rallies being held in Kolkata by the official “Kalighat” faction, the Ritabrata Banerjee-led dissident camp who call themselves the “real Trinamool” and the Congress party. The breakaway faction of the TMC’s majority Lok Sabha MPs, who have now merged with the NCPI, separately observed the Shahid Divas programme in Delhi. Mitra, a long-time associate of Mamata Banerjee and one of TMC’s founding-era faces, recently shifted his allegiance to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led dissident faction amid growing discontent over the party’s organisational functioning, the alleged sidelining of old guard leaders, and the widening rift between the grassroots leadership and the Mamata-Abhishek camp. The leader, who was earlier jailed for his alleged links to the Saradha ponzi scam, has, along with his wife and two sons, again come under the ED scanner in connection with a money laundering probe into the alleged municipal recruitment scam in Bengal. Recalling the July 21 movement of 1993, Mitra said he had visited Mamata Banerjee’s residence at 8 am on the day of the protest and asserted that the movement was built by grassroots leaders and workers. “I, Bobby (Firhad Hakim), Deba (Debasish Kumar), Aroop (Biswas) and Chandrimadi (Bhattacharya) – we who belonged to south Kolkata – were all here. This is the same Gandhi statue. On that day, I went to Mamata Banerjee’s house at 8 in the morning, but I will not disclose my purpose of visit since I am bound by honour,” he said. He also criticised the manner in which the Martyrs’ Day event had evolved over the years, saying, “If Mamata were on this stage today, the martyrs’ families would once again be pushed to the back, while celebrities occupied the spotlight”.