JOIN USThe voices of dissent within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are growing louder by the day. It begain with Singur MLA and former agriculture minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya raising his voice against TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Bhattacharya was followed by Banerjee’s once most-trusted aide Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and Shikha Mitra. Just 18 months after assuming power, several party leaders are not only criticising Mamata’s leadership, but are making strong allegations of corruption within the party, not to mention the setbacks at the Centre. These allegations are making a serious dent in the chief minister’s image of honesty and integrity–an image that made her the “incorruptible” leader of the masses.
Ironically enough, the first blow came from Singur. A retired headmaster - considered to be the face of Singur land movement - Bhattacharya, who, after being divested of the agriculture portfolio, not only refused to take his new “insignificant” portfolio, but alleged that the Trinamool Congress was being run with “corruption at various levels and the chief minister knows everything”.
The party whip in the Assembly, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay was the second to allege that the chief minister was encircled by a group of people with vested interests. “She has realised it; she is warning against syndicate raj and promoter raj and collection of cut money,” he told after being roughed at Calcutta University. Mamata chose not to respond on both the occasions.