If Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee remained conspicuous by her prolonged silence on Mahua Mitra, she has more than made up for it now by entrusting her party's most vocal MP, currently mired in a "cash for queries" controversy, with crucial organisational responsibilities.
In a revamp of the party's local leadership announced on Monday, Moitra was named president of TMC's Krishnanagar organizational district in Nadia. This is Moitra’s return to her position in the party hierarchy after two years, since Nadia was broken down into Krishnanagar and Ranaghat organizational districts after the 2021 state elections, prior to which she served as president of the entire district.
Moitra replaced septuagenarian Trinamul MLA Kallol Khan suffering from age related ailments. In the process, she is also believed to have received the party top brass’ assurance of solidarity, no matter the outcome of the question-corruption charges levelled against her by the BJP. She will be aided by the party's MLA Rukbanur Rahman as Krishnanagar’s district chairperson. Rahman is the elder brother of Rizwanur Rahman, the computer graphics designer whose death under mysterious circumstances in September 2007 had created major political and legal dust up for the erstwhile Bhuddhadeb Bhattacharjee administration.
“Thank you @MamataOfficial and @AITCofficial for appointing me District President of Krishnanagar (Nadia North). Will always work with the party for the people of Krishnanagar,” Moitra posted on her X handle.
The appointment comes at a time when the Vinod Kumar Sonkar (BJP MP)-headed Lok Sabha ethics committee has already recommended Moitra’s expulsion from the House as well as “severe punishment”, urging the Centre to conduct an “intense, legal, institutional inquiry” in a “time bound manner” in view of the “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal conduct” by her.
Moitra has dismissed the charges saying she was being specifically targeted because she was one of the very few who stood up against the bullies running the Centre and have been playing an integral role in exposing (Gautam) Adani and the alleged nexus he runs with PM Narendra Modi and his government.
Political observers believe that it’s the second line of action by the BJP-led Centre against Moitra, which reserves the possibility of barring the leader from contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls next year – which could happen if an investigating agency convicts her in a “crime” which entails an imprisonment of two years or more – prompted the party to make it clear that her political services for her constituency wasn’t lost.
The panel report, now handed over to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, is likely to be taken up for discussion on the first day of the Parliament’s winter session beginning in the first week of December.
Monday’s announcement from the Trinamul Congress was made ahead of the crucial general elections for its 35 organizational districts with 68 leaders receiving appointments as district chairpersons and presidents in addition to four state secretaries. While Moitra initially received vocal support in her stand-off against the ethics panel from the Congress and the CPI-M leaders, she had to wait till late in the day for solidarity from her own party’s top brass which came in the form of TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s tacit public support barely hours before the Sonkar-headed panel adopted its final recommendations last Thursday.
While Mamata Banerjee has remained consistent in refraining from commenting about the Moitra issue, the party by and large also followed suit till, of course, Abhishek voiced his opinion. But since the party’s district-level leadership appointment list is believed to be prepared at Abhishek Banerjee’s office and gets a final go-ahead only after the party supremo approves of each and every name, there could be little doubt on Moitra having received her blessings from both Mamata Banerjee and her perceived second-in-command.
Also, it was reliably that Moitra’s selection for the position was already decided in September when the chief minister was on an official tour of Spain and Dubai and was held back for Didi to grant her final approval following her return. The fact that the corruption charges against Moitra failed to make a dent on that decision should be an added shot in the arm for the Krishnanagar MP, observers felt.
Among the other significant changes in the district-level leadership structure of the TMC was the formal removal of Anubrata Mondal, the jailed leader accused of masterminding the state cattle scam, from the post of Birbhum district president. A core committee, constituted by Banerjee herself, and the district committee of the party would jointly step into Mondal’s shoes, it was announced. The deputy speaker of the state Assembly and MLA from Rampurhat, Ashish Banerjee, was appointed the district chairperson.