TMC Split: Team Mamata labels rebel MPs ‘traitors’, asks why They didn’t speak of their difficulties before polls

With Mamata Banerjee-led TMC continuing to implode and a faction of Lok Sabha MPs formally expressing their support to the BJP-led NDA group, senior party leader and Mamata loyalist Kirti Azad on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on rebel leaders, calling them “traitors”.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi alongside fellow MP Kalyan Banerjee, Azad claimed that these rebel leaders were elected in the name of “Maa Maati and Manush”, questioning why they had not spoken about their alleged difficulties before the Bengal Assembly elections.

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“Our 29 leaders won in the name of ‘Maa, Maati and Maanush’ and became MPs. I want to know from these traitors – why did you speak about your difficulties after the election, why not before it?,” he asked.

Azad said that TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy at least had the ethics to resign before speaking against the party and asked the rebels to contest on a BJP ticket instead.

“Sukhendu Sekhar Roy at least had the political ethics to resign. If you also have political ethics, then you all resign too and contest on a BJP ticket,” he said.

Roy had tendered his resignation as TMC MP and gave up his primary membership of the party on Sunday.

Azad also alleged that the rebel faction has neither disclosed its actual numbers, nor made public the letter they sent to the Speaker, informing him of their decision to join the NDA alliance.

He further took a dig at the BJP, saying the saffron party has adorned its forehead with borrowed vermilion – “Udhar ke sindoor ko BJP ne apne maang mein laga liya.”

MP Kalyan Banerjee also trained his guns against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the rebels, claiming that the ruling party has all the power, including ED and CBI but the TMC has ‘Maa, Maati, Maanush’ and people of Bengal.

Banerjee said, “You (BJP) have the CM, ED, CBI and other powers, but I have ‘Maa, Maati, Maanush’, my party, my party workers, and people of West Bengal.”

Their sharp criticism came after as many as 20 Trinamool Congress (TMC) Lok Sabha MPs, led by ‘new Didi’ Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, informed Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla that they want to be part of the BJP-NDA and snap ties with the TMC parliamentary party.

The rebel MPs held a meeting with West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari at the residence of Union Minister and BJP’s Bengal in-charge Bhupender Yadav.

After the Assembly polls debacle, 59 of the party’s 80 MLAs, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, had refused to accept Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Legislative Assembly.

They later formed their own faction and elected Ritabrata Banerjee as the TMC Legislative Party leader.