When Prashant Kishor’s ‘bar coded’ meeting, chaired by Mamata Banerjee on March 2, was boycotted by a few significant Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders and ground workers, it probably sent a strong signal of resentment among party leaders towards the poll strategist.
Party sources claimed a few of them could not make it to the meeting due to genuine reasons, while other purposely did not turn up as a mark of protest against Kishor’s excessive interference in party affairs.
The situation turned bitter when one of them reportedly told Banerjee that he will not follow commands from any other person except her.
Meanwhile, as the Congress faces a political crisis in Madhya Pradesh with Jyotiraditya Scindia's exit, a cryptic tweet from BJP leader Anupam Hazra hinting at a similar situation in West Bengal sent ripples in the TMC camp.
“There were reports that the Congress leadership was trying to get in touch with Jyotiraditya Scindia but they failed. Then he resigned from the Congress party. I feel that now Didi (Mamata Banerjee) should check whether she is getting Suvendu (Suvendu Adhikari) on phone or not. She should intensify her checking,” Hazra said in a tweet.
On the question of Adhikari joining the BJP, state party president Dilip Ghosh said, “Now the BJP-joining season is going on. If someone wants to join our party, we will welcome it.”
BJP MP Sukanta Majumdar claimed there are some TMC leaders who are in touch with the BJP.
"I have been hearing this for the last six years. Whenever they (TMC leaders) face some problems in their party, reports start doing the rounds that he or she is joining the BJP. Again, I am saying if someone wants to join, then we will welcome the person," said Majumdar.
Before the Lok Sabha elections last year, many TMC leaders had expressed their resentment when Banerjee announced the list of 42 candidates — she had dropped 10 sitting MPs to induct 18 new faces. At the time, senior party functionaries like Hazra, Soumitra Khan and Arjun Singh had openly rebelled and switched over to the BJP.
This had come as a major setback for the ruling camp in the state as Khan and Singh managed to win the Bishnupur and Barrackpore Lok Sabha seats, respectively, on a BJP ticket.
Only Hazra, expelled from the party on January 9 last year for anti-party activities, had lost to the TMC’s Mimi Chakraborty. Hazra is the nephew of TMC strongman and Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal. His latest tweet over Adhikari has raised serious questions of an internal rift in the TMC.
Banerjee, on several occasions in the past, has warned party leaders of disciplinary action in case they are found hobnobbing with the BJP and Left parties.
Over the last few years, party leaders, including Mukul Roy and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, either resigned, or were sidelined, like Madan Mitra and Pankaj Banerjee (who died in October), after Banerjee projected her nephew Abhishek as the next face of the party.
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