Discontent is brewing in the ruling Trinamul Congress. Yet another minister in the Trinamul Congress cabinet, after Suvendu Adhikari, attacked the party, dissenting against the leadership ahead of the Assembly polls scheduled in April-May in the state.

Today, the state forest minister Rajib Banerjee without naming anybody in the party leadership made some controversial statements at a time when speculation was rife that he might also follow his former cabinet colleague Adhikari in quitting the Mamata Banerjee government. While speaking in a programme on distribution of winter garments organised by a local club in the Kankurgachhi area in the city today Banerjee said, “Those people who perform are being ignored. They are being deprived of getting legitimate recognition. While people who spend their time in AC rooms are being pushed ahead, performers are being dragged down from behind. There are many such people who are in politics only to grab power.”

“You will get more numbers if you are a sycophant. I never do sycophancy,” the forest minister said. Several months ago, Banerjee had criticised his party’s way of functioning on alleged corruption issues in the party.

Political analysts in the city felt that the Banerjee’s observations might be detrimental to his party at a time when the leadership was in deep political turmoil owing to the heavyweight leader Suvendu’s resignation from the cabinet. Suvendu is all set to resign from the party soon and likely to join the saffron camp. Trinamul Congress is in real trouble to pacify the rebels and dissidents in the party, they felt. He had been maintain a distance from the top brass in Trinamul and was critical against the party’s day to day functioning. Trinamul Congress leaders mainly MLAs like Sadhan Pandey (consumer affairs minister), Silbhadra Dutta, Rabindranath Bhattacharya, Sukumar De, Krishnachandra Santra, Atin Ghosh, former deputy mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and member of the Board of Administrators in the KMC, and several other have already expressed their dissents against the party leadership in different times.