Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra, who continues to be with party founder Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday dismissed MLA Madan Mitra’s decision to switch allegiance to the rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee, linking the move directly to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to his family.
“It’s not a surprise,” Mahua Moitra told news agency ANI in Kolkata, “Yesterday, his wife, daughters-in-law and sons were summoned by the ED. So, he has gone on the summons of the ED… He has gone on the invitation of the ED.”
Madan Mitra’s family members were summoned by the ED for next week for questioning in connection with a money-laundering probe tied to the alleged municipal recruitment scam in West Bengal, a senior official told PTI on Tuesday.
Mahua Moitra pointed to what she described as Madan Mitra’s abrupt reversal.
“We should understand that the person who was standing day before yesterday and abusing Ritabrata gang, today he is going there and sitting next to Ritabrata,” she said.
“This has been done on the special invitation of the ED, so we wish him luck. We wish him good luck and good health, may you have a lovely time working under the Ritabrata gang,” she said, smiling with mirth.
Mitra on his exit and ED
Mitra, a former TMC minister, announced his switch on Wednesday, seated alongside Ritabrata Banerjee, who leads the rebel faction and currently serves as Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly.
Mitra said he had “only changed my room in assembly”, and denied any connection between his move and the ED summons issued to his family.
“My family has been summoned by a federal agency. My family will go and cooperate with the agency. But that is not linked to my joining (the rebels) today,” Mitra said.
He said his exit followed a demand that party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee “step aside for six months”, which was not accepted.
“I told [Abhishek], let us build the party, and then you can come back and take your seat, but he refused,” Mitra said.
“The party is sinking; the boat has gone under… Yet, the party decided or rather it was forced to accept that everyone else could die, but Abhishek had to be saved. It is deeply saddening,” he added.
Mitra announced that he had resigned from all party positions but remained technically an MLA. “I have left everything associated with Trinamool. That means I am no longer a Trinamool MLA in the functional sense,” he said.
This is not Mitra’s first brush with central agencies. He was arrested by the CBI in the 2014 Saradha chit fund case and spent 629 days in custody before bail, and was arrested again in May 2021 in the Narada sting case.
Mamata Banerjee’s response
Former CM Mamata Banerjee, responding separately to Mitra’s departure, said he had left out of “fear” of the ED and rejected any suggestion that Abhishek Banerjee’s continued position in the party was the real cause.
“BJP wished for me to get a heart attack, I will live till I see your end,” Mamata said in a Facebook Live address, referring to the BJP’s alleged role in engineering defections from her party ever since the Centre’s ruling party ended her reign in Bengal in May.
The exits have accelerated since then, with the bulk of TMC’s MLAs and MPs having either joined the rebel faction or “merged” into a smaller Tripura-based outfit. The split is now being contested before the Election Commission over which faction holds claim to the TMC name and symbol.
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