KOLKATA: Dinesh Trivedi’s Railway Budget was more than flouting Mamata Banerjee’s diktat to not hike passenger fares; it brought out in public the growing resentment within the top brass of the TMC. For months hushed whispers frantically discussed how senior leaders had fallen out of favour with the TMC chief. These leaders who had stood by Banerjee through thick and thin felt shortchanged when she grew to depend more and more on Mukul Roy and his ilk. A number of dissenters within the TMC such as Sougata Roy, Sisir Adhikari, Sultan Ahmed, Somen Mitra and Gobinda Naskar have long resented Didi for sidelining them and giving more importance to the likes of Roy, Madan Mitra and Partha Chatterjee.
Union Minister of State for Tourism Sultan Ahmed had first supported Trivedi’s budget before retracting his statement. “Mamata Banerjee had given a vision to Railways to work on. For that it needs money and it needs funds. World-class infrastructure cannot work without funds… Fares were not hiked for the past 10 years. Railways need additional funds. If fares are not increased, how will it function?” said Ahmed before withdrawing his comment.
With Trivedi disobeying Banerjee showed the strains within the party leadership, a witch-hunt is on for dissenters to quell any signs of rebellion. “These are people who have come into the TMC from the Congress or other political parties or are non-political people. They have come together for individual ambition and leave aside ideology, there isn’t even unity of thought. Once the CPI(M) was defeated, their own personal ambitions have started coming out,” said Mohd. Salim, Central Committee member, CPI(M). The senior leaders may well be waiting till next year’s panchayat polls to give voice to their resentment, which could in turn, push the TMC into crisis. “The serious political players have been sidelined. These leaders are not as angry with Banerjee as her dependence on the likes of Roy and Madan. They are her eyes and ears and work on their own personal agenda,” said a senior TMC leader.
Trivedi wasn’t the first TMC leader to openly rebel against Banerjee, TMC MP and singer Kabir Suman has been intermittently criticising increasing corruption within the party. Even State Education Minister and theatre personality Bratya Basu refused to toe the party line and espoused a teacher’s right to take leave during strikes.
While Suman has been summarily ignored by the party, Basu was let off with a rap from the Chief Minister.
To add to the TMC chief’s worries, there have been increasing instances of public spats between different factions of the party in the last few weeks. While the leaders are fighting at the top, the workers are resorting to violence and aggression at the grass-roots. While publicly the party refuses to accept it, the TMC is fast-becoming a party in disarray. A local TMC leader snatched the microphone from State Industries and Commerce Minister Partha Chatterjee at a party event in Hoogly recently while State Labour Minister Purnendu Bose had to cut short his speech in Berhampore faced with angry, slogan-shouting TMC supporters who alleged that party loyalists were being ignored.
“The party has only one leader—Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. There may be grouses in any big party, but the best part of being in the TMC is that everyone is given a patient hearing,” said Partha Chatterjee. Interestingly, Banerjee had alleged that infighting within the CPI(M) had led to the lynching of former Burdwan MLA Pradip Tah and another CPI(M) leader Kamal Gayen on February 22.