The perceived “rift” between the Trinamul Congress’s so-called old-guard and young brigade, playing out in public spats between followers of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek, was marked by a fresh twist on Wednesday with a senior MLA joining issue with an MP for suggesting that the party was nothing without Didi.
Trinamul functionary and Baranagar MLA Tapas Roy lashed out afresh at veteran leader and MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay for the latter’s earlier comments about hiw Trinamul without Mamata would be like the “third kid of a goat”, naïve and gullible.
Targeting Bandyopadhyay for his remarks, Roy, believed to be an Abhishek Banerjee proximate, built on what he previously said as a retort to the TMC MP’s statement and called him a “non-performing white elephant”.
“No one questions the authority of Mamata Banerjee in the party. No one has that audacity or the gumption to do it within our party. We have all joined the party because of her and consider her as our guiding light. But I am not ready to listen to the likes of Sudip Bandyopadhyay who are lazy and lethargic and bring little to the Trinamul table. I will have to think twice if I have to listen to his sermons or appease him to remain in the party,” Roy said.
Earlier, responding to the first round of salvos from Roy, Bandyopadhyay had smirked, “Haati chaley bazaar…” leaving the remaining part of the Hindi proverb (kutta bhaukey hazaar) unsaid, dangling in mid air. The proverb, literally translated, means ‘when a majestic elephant strolls in to the market, a thousand dogs keep barking at it’.
“I leave such comments to the taste of those who utter them,” Bandyopadhyay had said when asked to respond to the personal attacks against him by his fellow party men.
“He may consider himself an elephant. But he is actually a white elephant. A non-productive non-performer,” Roy did little to hide his personal bitterness for the MP.
Roy alleged that Bandyopadhyay was keen on running a parallel party structure in north Calcutta, his parliamentary constituency. “He is trying to do something of his own with seven wards of the area and has instructed ward presidents and councillors to keep me out of that fold,” the MLA claimed.
“I don’t need to follow in his footsteps at the party. I am senior to him considering the six years or so he had deserted the party. He had previously prophesied that the party would wither away. I have records of how he and his wife had conspired against the party. Those who are trying to force a rift within the party will be identified soon. Sudip doesn’t admire followers of Mamata, the party or, for that matter, those who follow Abhishek,” Roy continued.
“It doesn’t matter if the leaders in the party are old or new. What needs to be judged is what their efficiency levels are, like, whether they are loyal to the party and what kind of time they devote to the party,” Roy said, adding, “Abhishek Banerjee was, is and shall remain our leader in the party.”
The Roy-Bandyopadhyay conflict, which had repeatedly surfaced before on multiple public forums, seems to have sharply nose dived in the current context of leaders like party state general secretary and a perceived Abhishek mouthpiece Kunal Ghosh and the usually reticent state president Subrata Bakshi giving out sharply contradictory statements from both sides of the so-called “divide” in the Trinamul.
While leaders who prefer to remain fence sitters and non-aligned in the perceived ‘schism’ almost unilaterally see the developments as ominous ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls, a senior MP opined that the matter can only be tackled by a quick and effective intervention from the party supremo herself.
