Ahmedabad Times

“My private relationship with Suvendu Adhikari was superb,” mentioned Mahua Moitra.

NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mahua Moitra heaping reward on Suvendu Adhikari, who’s her celebration chief Mamata Banerjee’s arch nemesis, has raised eyebrows because the mass exodus of leaders from the “sinking” TMC continues to form West Bengal politics.Mahua’s “Suvendu supported me loads” comment triggered a buzz in political circles as a few of Mamata’s loyalists, feeling “blue”, have ditched the celebration ever since Bengal witnessed a landmark political shift, with the BJP bulldozing the once-dominant TMC within the nation’s key non-Hindi-speaking state.“My private relationship with Suvendu was superb. After we have been in the identical celebration (TMC) collectively, he supported me loads. After I contested from Karimpur for the primary time, nobody got here to marketing campaign for me. Even right now, you may see all of the images of him with us,” Mahua Moitra mentioned in an interview.She additional mentioned: “In 2014, I used to be speculated to get a Lok Sabha ticket, however it did not occur, and I cried all night time. It was Suvendu who supported me. Later, he joined the BJP, and we do not converse anymore as a result of he’s in a unique political celebration. However nobody can neglect our private relationship.”Her comment unfold like wildfire as she is taken into account one of the crucial firebrand leaders in Didi’s celebration and has incessantly been respiration down the BJP’s neck on the vary of points.Nevertheless, because the assertion started caching the eyeballs on the web, she was fast to scorch the hypothesis, saying the chunk of an interview was ” cherry picked” and that Suvendu was “no angel”. “Sure it’s cherry picked pls hearken to the complete interview. Suvendu isn’t any angel however he had the center to depart & battle on their ticket in contrast to these traitors. And that i had an excellent relationship with him whereas he was in our celebration however have by no means spoken to him since he left . Why make these feedback with out listening to the complete interview?” she wrote in a reply to a person on X.Amid the cloud suspicions and take a look at of loyalties, the battle for management of the TMC reached the Election Fee (EC) on Monday, with each the Mamata Banerjee camp and the rival Ritabrata Banerjee faction submitting separate lists of the celebration’s Nationwide Working Committee (NWC) in help of their respective claims.In a communication to the EC, Mamata Banerjee outlined the celebration’s organisational construction “as on June 20, 2026”, which her supporters described because the formally recognised hierarchy of the Trinamool Congress.The checklist identifies Mamata Banerjee because the celebration’s chairperson, Subrata Bakshi as vice-president, and Abhishek Banerjee as nationwide common secretary and chief of the celebration within the Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, together with treasurer Subhasish Chakraborty, have been additionally named as members of the NWC.The dissident faction, nonetheless, submitted a separate checklist to the ballot physique, naming four-time Howrah MLA Arup Ray as chairperson instead of Mamata Banerjee.The insurgent group has argued that beneath Article 20 of the celebration structure, a Nationwide Working Committee have to be reconstituted not less than as soon as each three years. Based on the faction, the final NWC was fashioned on February 12, 2022, and its time period expired on February 11, 2025.Rejecting that rivalry, a senior Trinamool MP mentioned the celebration’s official data already set up the legitimacy of the present committee.“The EC web site has the NWC checklist submitted in 2024. Additionally, the Trinamool structure, additionally uploaded on the EC web site, clearly spells out the function and performance of the chairperson, and that she will by no means get replaced,” the MP mentioned.