Suvendu quits!

The senior cabinet minister from the All-India Trinamool Congress, Suvendu Adhikari finally did the expected, submitting his resignation from his ministerial post, as well as the various chairmanships he was holding. The letters were accepted both by the Chief Minister and the Governor. Perhaps even before the letters reached the addressees, they reached the press and minions like me.

The build-up to the climax was going on for the last six months. Like in pregnancy, the resignation did not reveal any surprise, leaving only a curiosity. What would be Suvendu’s next move? Rumours are rife that he might float his party, while the BJP has warmly welcomed him. The day was significant as another MLA Mihir Goswami from North Bengal resigned from the Trinamool and joined the BJP. The BJP leadership claimed that more are in the queue. My discreet queries confirmed the statement, which might include two ministers, two parliamentarians and a few legislators.

The war room in Kalighat, the home of the CM Mamata was busy in the evening and in the presence of Didi, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Subrata Bakshi and importantly Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata and the reason for the minister’s quitting. The initial scripted statements were one of bravado, ‘one person’s leaving will not impact the party’ etc. but deep in their minds the damage control crew know that they have a tough job in hand, just before the polls.

I recall the former President, Pranab Mukherjee, then a leader of the Congress party, on being denied the Prime Minister’s post.  He resigned from the party and floated a Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress and pulled on in relative obscurity between 1986 and 89. The new party idea of Adhikari too would be fraught with the danger of fading too soon. Adhikari would never join the irrelevant leftists or the skeletal Congress. The BJP thus could be the choice by default, for a politician like Suvendu, the one who is fighting a dynastic AITC.

The other point of Adhikari’s consternation is the interference of Prashant Kishor in the political affairs, so much so to regulate the addresses and their travels. PK, in my opinion, has misjudged the egoistic Bengalis and erroneously placing them at par with either Delhiites or Punjabis. I have been stating for long that investing in PK was a fallacy of TMC. They have underestimated the deep discontent within the party and the anti-incumbency factor that was missed. 

The cosmetic pre-poll offers like the ‘Swasthya Sathi’ may not redeem the party’s fortunes much. I do not attach much importance to these overtures either, because the State lacks the necessary finances or infrastructure needed to address the health needs of 9 crore citizens.

In the face of leaders from the Trinamool jumping over to the BJP, the chant of ‘us and they’ sounds misplaced and hollow.

Suvendu’s well-crafted ouster is a political hara-kiri for Trinamool Congress. 

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix