oppn parties Jolt For TMC In Bengal, Miffed Minister Suvendu Adhikari Quits Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet

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Jolt For TMC In Bengal, Miffed Minister Suvendu Adhikari Quits Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2020-11-30 16:55:24

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal received a big jolt ahead of the state elections next year when one of Mamata Banerjee's star comrade-in-arms since a long time, Suvendu Adhikari, resigned from the cabinet. Although Adhikari was miffed with the party leadership for a long time now, back channel efforts were going on to placate him and prevent him from jumping ship. Interestingly, Adhikari, holding the irrigation and transport ministry, resigned from the cabinet but did not give up his MLA seat and did not leave the party. He said that "this is a one-person party. I could not work like I wanted to. What's the point in continuing?"

Adhikari's resignation has wider repercussions for the TMC as his entire family is in politics. His father Sisir is the TMC MP from Contai and is the District President of TMC, Midnapore (East). One of his brothers, Dibyendu Adhikari, is the party MP from Tamluk and the other brother is the chairman of the Contai Municipality. The Adhikaris have complete sway over the political machinery in Midnapore district of the state and several MLAs owe allegiance to them. It would be interesting to watch which way the party set up goes if Suvendu decides to leave the party, either alone or with other members of the family.

While the TMC sees hope in his action of not leaving the party or resigning his assembly seat, the opposition BJP and the Congress think it is just a matter of time before he does so. The BJP has already started making overtures to the estranged leader to cross over. Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury, on the other hand, said that this was "the start of Trinamool"s ashani sanket (ill tidings)."

TMC supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee is not taking Suvendu's resignation lightly. This was evident when she called a meeting of senior cabinet ministers Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas and party MPs Subrata Bakshi and Abhishek Banerjee to discuss the matter. Mamata has tasked party MP Saugata Roy to talk to Suvendu and win him back. It remains to be seen whether this pans out like the Sachin Pilot episode in Rajasthan and Adhikari remains in the party with no posts or whether he crosses over to the BJP. Adhikari, on his part, is keeping his cards close to the heart as of now. But there is no doubt that if he crosses over, it will be a huge setback for the TMC.

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