Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra rallied behind Mamata Banerjee on Sunday as a revolt deepened in the party’s parliamentary ranks. Moitra branded the MPs moving toward the BJP-led NDA as “traitors with yellow-stained pants” and dared them to resign and recontest on a BJP ticket.
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“MPs won in 2024 on TMC ticket. Mandate was NOT for NDA,” the Krishnanagar MP wrote on X on Sunday evening, even as some rebel MPs openly said they were aligning with BJP-led NDA.
“All the greedy self-serving traitors with yellow-stained pants can please join BJP now — resign your seats & contest on BJP ticket. Let’s see what big heroes you are,” she wrote.
In another post, Moitra targeted TMC MP and former Team India cricketer Yusuf Pathan, asking whether he was “rushing to Delhi” at Union home minister Amit Shah’s call. “Have some courage. You played for India. Our district voted you in with a huge margin. Have some shame & some spine,” she said.
It was not clear if Pathan was indeed with the rebel group. There were reports earlier that Sourav Ganguly, a former Team India captain, had mediated for Mamata to ask Pathan to resign so that the ex-CM could enter the Lok Sabha in a bypoll. Ganguly has denied having played that role.
Mahua Moitra’s intervention came as rebel MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar announced that “nearly 20 TMC Lok Sabha members” of the TMC — a party founded by Mamata in 1998 — had written to Speaker Om Birla offering support to the NDA. She confirmed the move to news agency ANI with a “thumbs up” emoji.
Under the anti-defection law, a breakaway faction needs two-thirds of a party’s MPs to avoid disqualification. With 28 TMC members in the Lok Sabha, the rebels would need 19. It is the second such front against Mamata Banerjee. In the assembly, expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee formed a faction with at least 58 MLAs and became Leader of the Opposition. The turmoil follows the TMC’s poll defeat, which handed Bengal its first BJP government under Suvendu Adhikari, ending Mamata Banerjee’s rule since 2011.
The TMC leadership dismissed the claim made by Dastidar. It said Kalyan Banerjee had been named TMC’s Lok Sabha chief whip on May 20 and that Dastidar’s claim to the post “holds no value”, while questioning whether the “so-called rebel group” had submitted any signed letter to the Speaker. Dastidar had in late May accused Kalyan Banerjee of “verbal abuse” and misogyny in a letter to the Speaker.
Another pro-Mamata MP, former cricketer Kirti Azad, wrote on X: “]Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar’s] removal and appointment of Kalyan Banerjee as the chief whip was already informed to the honourable speaker last month by our honourable chairperson Mamta Banerjee. The question is for how long the BJP will keep hoodwinking the people?”
The dissidents, including Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, who resigned from the Upper House earlier on Monday, met at the residence of Union minister and BJP Bengal election in-charge Bhupender Yadav. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari also attended.
This meeting coincided with the INDIA bloc gathering at Delhi’s Constitution Club, which Banerjee and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee attended.
