Hurt by Mamata's remarks, Chandrima Bhattacharya resigns from TMC

Senior TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya has resigned from all party posts. She cited being hurt by party supremo Mamata Banerjee's remarks accusing her of handing over the Trinamool Bhavan to a rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee.

Chandrima Bhattacharya resigns, cites Mamata's 'hurtful' remark

Chandrima Bhattacharya on Saturday termed former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remarks accusing her of "handing over" the Trinamool Bhavan to the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel faction as the reason behind her resignation from the party.

After resigning from Mamata Banerjee's TMC, Chandrima Bhattacharya told ANI that she was hurt by the party supremo's remarks. Bhattacharya said, "You saw what happened yesterday. An incident happened at Trinamool Bhavan. After that, Mamata ji spoke to me over the phone. She told me, 'You handed over Trinamool Bhavan to them.' This hurt me. There was no need to say this."

Amid escalating internal feud in the TMC, the party's state unit president and former Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya resigned from all party posts on Saturday. Following this, Mamata Banerjee assumed the post of the state president of her TMC faction. The resignation comes at a time of high drama in West Bengal politics, as the property owner of the TMC's state party office in Kolkata locked the premises from the inside following reports that the rebel faction had taken possession of the building.

Mixed reactions from party and opposition

Meanwhile, TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh hit out at Chandrima Bhattacharya, calling her "arrogant". Kunal Ghosh said, "I willl speak on this later, not right now. Anyone can make any decision, but when Mamata Banerjee was the CM, she (Chandrima Bhattacharya) had the most important ministry (department). Now she is showing arrogance."

TMC MLA Prasun Banerjee maintained that one should respect Bhattacharya's decision to quit the party. He said, "Chandrima Bhattacharya has always been a very senior leader of the party. She was a multiple-time MLA and a minister from the party. She has made a decision. I think that there must be a solid reason behind her decision, and you have to respect the decision."

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Rajesh Kumar Surolia alleged a mutual distrust among TMC leaders across factions. He said that the BJP had predicted the TMC's fall in the absence of power. The BJP leader said, "Just look at their internal factionalism and infighting. This party was engaged in all sorts of illicit activities, including snatching, extortion, corruption, bribery, and commission-seeking. Now that they aren't getting anything out of it, they are fighting amongst themselves; there is mutual distrust, and no one trusts anyone else."

"We had been saying for years that this party wouldn't last, because once those elements were removed, there was absolutely no political base left. It has been 60 days since the results came out on May 4. You can see the situation after just 60 days: the party has completely disintegrated amidst internal infighting," he said.

The political standoff in the TMC continues after the Assembly election defeat, as both the loyalist and rebel factions move to assert control over the party's assets and organisational structure.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)