Mamata Banerjee reached Midnapore on Sunday evening on the eve of her “mega” rally billed as her show of strength on the home turf of rebellious party colleague Suvendu Adhikari.
The chief minister is likely to take the dais at College Ground around 12.30pm on Monday. The party leadership has been working hard to ensure a 1.5-lakh-plus turnout.
“This is now a major prestige issue. Midnapore is a bastion of the Adhikari clan. The show of strength will not only be crowd-wise, but also on the dais. Whoever doesn’t turn up will be identified as having sided with Suvendu,” said a Trinamul MP.
Nandigram MLA Adhikari claims influence across Bengal, but his core strength lies in East and West Midnapore.
Of the 31 Assembly seats between the two districts, Trinamul holds 27 (excluding the party’s Egra MLA Samaresh Das, who died of Covid-19). Of them, at least 15 MLAs are said to be close to Adhikari.
The Trinamul MP did the math. “We know Suvendu won’t be present. Patashpur MLA Jyotirmoy Kar has Covid-19. Contai South MLA Chandrima Bhattacharya is on a party assignment in north Bengal. The Egra MLA is no more. That leaves possible 24 attendees,” said the MP.
“We do not think we will see Contai North MLA Banasri Maity, Khejuri MLA Ranajit Mondal, Moyna MLA Sangram Dolui, Ghatal MLA Shankar Dolai, Keshiari MLA Paresh Murmu….The others, we’re keen to find out,” he added.
Adhikari’s clan, associated with Trinamul, are also powerful. Father Sisir Adhikari is the Contai MP and East Midnapore party chief and a party vice-president. One of his brothers Dibyendu is the Tamluk MP, and another brother Soumyendu is Contai’s civic chairman.
Sisir, maintaining cordial ties with Mamata despite his son’s stand, on Sunday said he would like to attend the event, but cited a “surgery in the big toe of my right foot”. Adhikari and his brothers could not be reached for their comments.
Adhikari did not hold his anticipated “tell-all” news meet on Sunday on his political future. A source close to him claimed the news meet was a canard “spread by the party”. “Dada (Adhikari) has nothing to say to the media right now and won’t make political declarations while still being a member of the party and the Assembly,” said the source. “The news meet could have happened had the party not gone to town with details of Tuesday evening’s meeting between Dada, (Mamata’s nephew) Abhishek Banerjee and (Bengal poll strategist hired by the party) Prashant Kishor,” he added.
After the party divulged to the media details of that meeting, that was also attended by senior MPs Saugata Roy and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Mamata addressed them via speakerphone), Adhikari got intensely displeased and called off dialogue.
It is felt that Adhikari, opposed to Mamata’s choice of nephew Abhishek as political successor and her appointment of poll strategist Kishor for commandeering Trinamul ahead of Assembly polls, may join the BJP or float a party aligned to the NDA. Chances of him staying on in Trinamul appear slim now.
Sources in the party said Mamata would deliver a speech with a stern message.
“Elements such as zero tolerance for anti-party activities, those looking to go should go, and we will defeat the BJP with or without opportunists should prominently feature in her speech,” said a Trinamul Rajya Sabha member.
