Kolkata : As the Trinamool Congress plunged into its biggest internal crisis since its formation nearly three decades ago, party MP Mahua Moitra launched a blistering attack on the rebel MLAs who wrested control of the legislature wing, calling them “completely useless” leaders who had survived solely on Mamata Banerjee’s charisma and no longer had the stomach to fight the BJP from the opposition benches.
Moitra accused the BJP of engineering the split through coercion and intimidation, alleging that the rebel legislators were pressured into switching camps with threats of arrests and central agency action. She also claimed the dissidents, led by expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, were unwilling to remain in the opposition after years in power and were instead choosing the “safe” route.
The Trinamool witnessed an apparent split for the first time in its 28-year history on Wednesday after 58 rebel MLAs seized control of the party’s legislature wing, elected expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee as its leader and secured recognition from the West Bengal Assembly Speaker. Please understand that what is happening now, and playing out for all of India to see, is that the BJP has started even wanting to choose the leaders of the opposition.
Moitra claimed that the operation to split the legislators was orchestrated by the BJP, alleging that current chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, a former “soldier of the Trinamool”, knew “every Achilles’ heel” of each MLA and had targeted them individually. He knows exactly what each Achilles’ heel of each MLA is. He has done this operation one-to-one on each MLA. So one MLA, for example, Sabina Yasmin in Motabari, has been told, ‘The NIA will get you for the Motabari violence’. Two other people, Javed Khan, for example, have been told, ‘You will be arrested.
The problem is, fifteen years of staying in power, they cannot be in opposition anymore. They have forgotten what it is to be in opposition. They have lost the stomach for a fight. They don’t want to fight the BJP. They don’t want to fight the police. They don’t want ED. They don’t want CBI. They just want to play safe,” she said.
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