Following a humiliating election defeat, Trinamool Congress leaders are publicly criticising the party leadership, highlighting internal conflicts and lack of support as contributing factors to the loss.
Key Points
- Manoj Tewari accuses Aroop Biswas of hindering development projects due to insecurity and lack of support.
- TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta claims he received more support from BJP leaders than his own party after attacks.
- Actor-MP Dev urges the new government to foster unity and artistic freedom within the Bengali film industry.
- Several TMC leaders blame Abhishek Banerjee's political management style for the party's decline.
Less than 48 hours after the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party, a section of Trinamool Congress leaders have come out in the open, lambasting the party leadership, holding them responsible for the debacle and for allegedly turning them away when their interventions were needed in the wake of post-poll backlashes.
Cricketer-turned-state's former junior sports minister Manoj Tewari lashed out at his erstwhile senior minister Aroop Biswas, alleging that the latter's "insecurity" drove him to stop development activities from getting implemented.
In a video message on social media pages, Tewari said, "This corrupt government got the people's treatment it deserved, because it never worked for people's good, never intended to fulfil the promises it made and only cared about its personal interests."
Tewari was elected from the Shibpur assembly constituency in Howrah in 2021, but was denied a TMC ticket in 2026.
Rana Chatterjee, his successor from the seat, was defeated by BJP's actor-cum-politician Rudranil Ghosh by a margin of over 16,000 votes.
Allegations of hindered development and insults
"I wanted to develop an athletic hub in Howrah, and for that, I roped in Jamaican Olympian and sprinter Yohan Blake to helm the project. Out of the Rs 700 crore sports budget in the state, only Rs 5 crore was required for this, and it would have changed the complexion of sporting activities in the district. Yet Aroop Biswas, the sports minister, ensured that the project was shelved because the possible recognition it would have given me made him insecure," Tewari alleged.
Tewari further alleged that he was repeatedly "insulted" by Biswas during official functions, which forced him eventually to maintain distance.
"In the sports department, I had nothing to do except have tea and biscuits. I wasn't invited to events, not even on stage during the Durand Cup despite me remaining on the field, since the minister couldn't tolerate my image. My chair was like a lollipop, with no effective powers," he added.
Tewari also referred to the Lionel Messi fiasco at the Salt Lake stadium last year, where Biswas found himself in the middle of widespread public discontent for blocking the footballer's view from spectators.
"I had a hunch that something like that would happen. That's why I did not go to the event. And look what happened," he said.
Frustration with party leadership
Asserting that he tried his best to bring about civic development in Shibpur, but efforts were stonewalled, the disgruntled leader claimed he tried to reach Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee but failed to get past the invisible iron curtains.
"Desperate, I even spoke directly to the CM during one of the cabinet meetings to which she replied: 'Don't I have anything else to do?' She didn't even give me 20 seconds to explain what I wanted to say," he said, adding, "I realised that very day that this government won't last long."
Accusations of neglect and lack of support
TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta also posted a video on social media pages alleging senior leaders in his party stopped taking his frantic SOS calls after "self-proclaimed BJP workers, who actually had switched camps from TMC", assaulted his aged in-laws on the afternoon of May 4, after vote counting trends showed a clear verdict in favour of the BJP.
"I will be committing a sin if I do not confess that on that day, when my own house was also under attack from these self-declared BJP miscreants, the only support I received was from the BJP leaders, not from my own party, who took proactive steps to stop the situation from spiralling out of control," Dutta said.
Calls for unity and cooperation
In a significant social media post, TMC's actor-MP Dev congratulated the BJP on receiving the people's mandate to form the new government in Bengal.
"As someone deeply connected to both public life and the film fraternity, I would earnestly request the new government to uphold the spirit of unity and artistic freedom by ensuring that the culture of bans and divisions within the Bengali film industry becomes a thing of the past. Cinema is one of Bengal's greatest identities, and its growth can only happen through mutual respect, coexistence and collective progress," he wrote.
The popular actor and parliamentarian from Paschim Medinipur's Ghatal, which suffers consistently from monsoon flooding, said he looked forward to the support and cooperation of the new government towards the completion of the Ghatal Master Plan.
"Beyond politics, this is about safeguarding lives, securing livelihoods and giving the people of Ghatal the future they deserve," he said.
Blame on political management style
Several TMC leaders like Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury, the party's state general secretary from Malda district and a former minister, and Atin Ghosh, Kolkata's deputy mayor, pointed fingers at the party's perceived second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee's style of political management, accusing him of "single-handedly responsible for bringing the party down".
While Choudhury was denied a party ticket to contest from the English Bazar constituency in Malda in the 2026 polls, Ghosh was defeated by BJP's Ritesh Tewari in the Kashipur-Belgachhia constituency of Kolkata by a margin of 1651 votes.
TMC's candidate from the Behala Paschim seat in Kolkata, Ratna Chatterjee, also voiced her disappointment at failing "to reach the party leadership when it was urgently required".
Chatterjee, who won the adjacent Behala Purba seat in 2021, was shifted to Behala Paschim to replace the former TMC minister Partha Chatterjee, who was embroiled in the teachers' recruitment scam, but lost to BJP's youth leader Indranil Khan by a margin of nearly 25,000 votes.
In a general rebuttal statement, the TMC said opinions expressed by individuals should not be construed as the official position of the party.
"We wish to clarify that any such statements made in the media or shared on social media platforms represent the personal views of the individuals concerned," it said.
"It should not be interpreted as the official stance unless officially communicated through official channels of the party," the statement added.
