Former leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Madan Mitra on Friday rejected allegations that he exited the Mamata Banerjee camp of the party fearing probe and Enforcement Directorate raids. Mitra said that he left the party because he felt more efforts need to defeat the BJP than what the TMC currently is doing.
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“The ED didn’t scare us. They didn’t call or threaten us… Why mix politics with the ED?… I felt that to defeat the BJP, we needed to put in more effort than the way the Trinamool was operating from Kalighat. I wanted to support this new, assertive Trinamool… She chased me away. So I left too,” Mitra said.
He went on to praise new Bengal chief minister, Suvendu Adhikari, and said, “There is no doubt that considering Suvendu Adhikari’s strength and vigor at his age, it would be very difficult to find a leader across the country capable of taking him on.”
Mitra, once a close aide of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, stepped away from the TMC to join the rebel faction led by Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee.
As he quit the party, Madan made blistering attack on Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, likening her to “Dhritarashtra and Gandhari” for what he alleged was her blind love for nephew Abhishek. He compared Abhishek to Adolf Hitler and branded “a political villain with criminal instincts”.
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Mitra was one of Banerjee’s longest-serving political associates and among the TMC’s founding-era leaders. He announced his resignation from all national and state organisational committees functioning under the “Mamata Banerjee-TMC” camp, besides stepping down as the party’s chief whip in the assembly.
“I have only changed my room, not my house. I am very much in the TMC,” Mitra said after meeting Ritabrata Banerjee in his assembly chamber, news agency PTI reported. He declared that he would relinquish every organisational responsibility under the Mamata Banerjee-led faction while continuing as a TMC MLA.
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“I am resigning from all national and state committees of the Mamata Banerjee TMC. I am also stepping down as chief whip. I was in the Trinamool and I remain in the Trinamool,” he said.
In one of his trademark metaphors, Mitra added, “Perhaps that room had a comfortable bed while this one has only a cot. I have chosen the cot.”
