TRINAMOOL Congress founder and former West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee seems to be getting deeper in fresh trouble even as she vows to repair the serious damage the party has suffered after the electoral debacle that saw her ousted from power. Confused and angry, she has begun pushing the party workers to make up their mind at the earliest whether they are with her or with the rebel group led by Mr. Ritabrata Banerjee (who is now the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly). To make things all the more difficult for Ms. Mamata Banerjee, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Ms. Rukmini ‘Koel’ Mallick has quit her RS membership -- becoming the fourth MP to sever ties with the leader. Obviously, even the remnants of Trinamool Congress are in serious trouble of complete disintegration. For, in the Rajya Sabha, the party’s strength has declined to a single digit of nine. A few days ago, when many TMC leaders showed their clear displeasure about Ms. Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Mr. Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC founder refused to take any action against him. She was quoted as saying that the party would survive the crisis the moment she throws Mr. Abhishek Banerjee out.

 

‘Yet, I am not going to do that’, she declared in effect. That sent waves of anger among the TMC rank and file and made things all the more difficult for the party to hold itself together. The story of TMC is a classic study of how an organisation without any philosophical cementing gets splintered with even a hint of a trouble in the distance. It is not known what the next course of action would be for Ms. Rukmini Mallick after resigning from the Rajya Sabha. But three of her colleagues who left their membership immediately joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ms. Mallick may follow the same route, it is suspected -- leaving Ms. Mamata Banerjee hapless and helpless. Of course, the former West Bengal Chief Minister does not appear to give up and is promising to rebuild the party. There is no doubt that she has the drive to reorganise the party again and start a new political chapter in her career. Yet, given the manner in which the party has splintered, any attempt to rebuild the party may not be easy for any one. One the biggest challenges Ms. Mamata Banerjee is facing is of the neat and efficient manner in which Chief Minister Mr. Suvendu Adhikari is running the West Bengal Government and the State unit of the BJP.

 

The common people as well as political workers across the spectrum are realising the difference and are showing inclination to favour the change. The Suvendu Adhikari Government is taking strong action against those who had taken the law into their hands when Ms. Mamata Banerjee was in power. Yet, their action does not have the edge of political vendetta -- which the common people are appreciating. Ms. Mamata Banerjee is finding the task of rebuilding of her party all the more tough against the background of the fair manner in which Mr. Suvendu Adhikari is running the Government. The difficulty is that nobody is willing to listen to her diatribes. Political observers feel that rebuilding of the TMC would be a next-to-impossible task particularly when Ms. Mamata Banerjee has lost her charisma and leadership magnetism. When she was in power, her only refrain was that the Central Government was against her and that she was sort of a damsel in distress.

 

That position is no longer possible after the voters threw out the TMC regime. Now, Ms. Mamata Banerjee has no substantial argument against the Central Government or even the State Government. For, nobody is willing to listen to her crap that she was made to lose the election conspiratorially. Unfortunately, the Opposition camp does not seem to have learned right lessons out of the TMC disaster in West Bengal. It is still following old, rusted methods of countering the BJP. Soon, even those slogans and methods would become useless and the Opposition camp will have one way to go -- of doom.