Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra launched a blistering attack on Monday against Baharampur MP and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, accusing him of aligning with the party's dissident faction. The public reprimand came just hours after 20 of the party's 28 Lok Sabha MPs broke away to establish a separate parliamentary group. Moitra, the Member of Parliament for Krishnanagar, used social media to criticise the cricketer-turned-politician for allegedly travelling to New Delhi following a summons from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Challenging Pathan to show some fortitude, she reminded him of his career representing India on the international cricket stage, stating that the district had elected him by a significant margin and urging him to show some shame and backbone. Throughout this period, Moitra has remained a staunch loyalist of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the party navigates its most severe internal upheaval since its inception in 1998. She previously directed sharp criticism toward the rebel MLAs who seized control of the legislature wing, dismissing them as ineffective leaders who owed their political survival entirely to the personal charisma of Mamata Banerjee.
Pathan found himself at the centre of a political controversy following reports in a Bengali daily suggesting that the Trinamool Congress had approached former India captain Sourav Ganguly to convince the ex-cricketer to step down from his Baharampur seat. According to the report, this move was intended to create a vacancy for Banerjee to contest a by-election in a constituency where Muslims comprise an estimated 50 to 52 per cent of the electorate, making it a reliable stronghold for the party. The article claimed Pathan rejected the proposal, though Ganguly later dismissed the allegations entirely, accusing the publication of showing a reckless disregard for the truth. Pathan had notably unseated Congress veteran Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, securing the first victory for his party in Baharampur since the late 1990s.
The criticism by Moitra came on the heels of an important development in Parliament, whereby 20 MPs from Lok Sabha, led by Chief Whip Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, addressed a letter to Speaker Om Birla indicating their support for the National Democratic Alliance headed by the BJP, thus fracturing the parliamentary outfit. According to Kakoli, this was after long consultations among themselves during which time they realised that they should respect the people’s choice and be part of the alliance.
Insiders within the breakaway faction indicated that the MPs do not intend to resign from the Trinamool Congress immediately or formally cross the floor to the BJP. The strategy involves operating as an independent parliamentary bloc while providing voting support to the NDA, a manoeuvre designed to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.
This parliamentary rebellion closely follows a parallel crisis in the state legislature, where expelled MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha presented a letter claiming the allegiance of 60 lawmakers. While the letter reasserted that the three-time Chief Minister remained the leader of the party, it recommended Ritabrata for the post of Leader of the Opposition. This step was widely interpreted as a coordinated effort to marginalise Abhishek Banerjee, whom Ritabrata has frequently criticised for managing the political organisation like a corporate entity rather than a grassroots movement. The dissidents were able to achieve the two-thirds majority, needed for evading anti-defection measures, by gaining the backing of 60 MLAs and thereby placed themselves in an advantageous position of being able to assume the identity of the party in case of a split.
Also read: Bengal violence: An eye for an eye will turn whole world blind
Follow us
