In the wake of the political hailstorm in West Bengal following the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Assembly election win, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee's citadel has come down crumbling. With a flurry of desertions since the defeat, the former Chief Minister is now staring at a deep political fracture, both in the Assembly and Parliament.
The 'rebels' struck at the speed of lightning, leaving a string of questions in their trail. How did the party unravel so quickly?
Can Mamata Banerjee, known for her street-fighting style, claw her way back into the heart of Bengal's politics? Will she be able to retain the party symbol? And perhaps most importantly, can Mamata Banerjee still put up a fight against her now familiar foe, the BJP?
In an exclusive interview with The Quint, firebrand TMC MP and Mamata-loyalist Mahua Moitra answers these questions and more as she speaks about the developments within the party, future of TMC, the 'rebels', the Ram Mandir 'theft' allegations, and the perils of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-BJP's "fascist" politics.
Read edited excerpts here:
Let's get straight to the point: the TMC's collapse. Seniors, juniors, MPs, MLAs, mayors, disrict councillors, leaders, and party workers from all segments have rebelled. How do you explain the swiftness and seriousness of this rupture?
It's not a "rupture", neither is it a "collapse". This is a party that won 41 percent of the popular vote in West Bengal a month ago. It got 2.6 crore votes. That's half the population of Denmark. That's how many votes we got. Now, how many people have since left? Twenty MPs, 65 MLAs, plus let's say 10 mayors, and some hundred or so others... so about 200-250 people have resigned or left the party. Or rather lured by lucre or scared by the stick. But the party that got 2.6 crore votes doesn't collapse because 200-250 people left to save their own skin. I would not call that a collapse of the party, especially Mamata Banerjee's party, built on the charisma of Mamata Banerjee, and on the blood, sweat and toil of the party workers. It was never built on middle-rung leaders. In fact, the question always was, who would lead the party afer Mamata Banerjee?
"Suddenly, the very same media, which spent 20 years accusing the TMC of being a party where "Mamata Banerjee is every post and every body else is a lamp post", is now saying "oh, so many big leaders have left." Yesterday, you said there was no leader other than Mamata in the TMC, now suddenly these leaders have become important?"
But wouldn't 65 MLAs and 20 MPs pass the two-thirds test..
There is no two-thirds test. Please get that correct. There's no two-thirds test. The Tenth Schedule, in Section 21A, very clearly lays down the rules for disqualification over defections. And about the two-third majority aspect, if you look at the Supreme Court judgments, it is two-third of the total party. For the Parliamentary party or the Legislative Party, it means nothing. Two-thirds of MPs or two-thirds of MLAs means nothing, that's not the law. It has to be two-thirds of the total party.
But it will be a long legal battle...
It's not a long legal battle, it's a very clear-cut case. It's the media which is calling it otherwise. The law is actually black and white. So there's no "test of two-thirds". I repeat, two-thirds refers to two-thirds of the whole party, which nobody has got. The leaders who left are puffing this story, the media is buying it, and that is the reason they are getting any mileage out of it.
What would you call these rebel leaders? Political opportunists? Traitors? Cowards?
I wouldn't call them "rebels", to start with. The word "rebel" is associated with idea of some kind of purity of cause. Every "rebel" in history has that purity of cause. These leaders do not pass any such test.
I recently met a Calcutta University professor who told me that the term I should use for them is "democratic criminals". I had told her I would, so here I am. Each of the leaders are "democratic criminals". Like you have crimes against humanity, for which the International Court of Justice was set up to prosecute these crimes. I think in the future, there will be a trial by the public—what you call a "Janta ka Durbar". And that day, these democratic criminals will be tried, and they will not pass the guillotine.
You mention lucre and fear as the reasons for leaders leaving. But not all of them have cases against them... What explains their departure then? Is it just big bucks?
I would like to ask them the same... what explains their departure?
MPs are separate from the Assembly. The BJP was not in power in Bengal untill now. But in 2019, they got 18 MPs out of Bengal, who served their full term. They got 12 MPs out of Bengal in 2024, who are currently serving their full term. We have a federal system, where the legislatures are different from the Parliament of India. Thus, each of these MPs has been elected, like I have been in 2024, to serve out a full five-year term, irrespective of what happens in the state Legislative Assembly. If you have been elected two years ago on a TMC ticket by defeating a BJP candidate... the people of Bengal chose you, a TMC candidate, over a BJP candidate.
Secondly, when the elections were underway, each of these leaders was campaigning for the TMC in their own area. Why did they not voice their dissent then, if they thought the party was full of dacoits and looters and thieves? If they had a problem with Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, or anybody else... they may voice it. I have openly voiced my criticisms about many things I had a problem with. But none of them did.
Why did they not resign before? Like Mausam Noor, who resigned from the party before the polls, and then contested elections on another party's ticket. That's fine, it's fair and square.
"But you ask me why these 20 people left if it wasn't for the big bucks... I sure hope it was for the big bucks. They are definitely not getting any blessings out of it."
Did you get any feelers from the BJP? Can there be a price put on Mahua Moitra?
You know what... (laughs). I have entered politics, and today people tell me, 'Mahua, why do you need to be politics?' And it's true. Why do I need to be in politics? I am 51 years old, I am in a good space in my personal life, we make enough for three meals and a holiday. I actually don't even need to work anymore. So why do I do it, why am I in this business? Why do I need to be standing in a place, surrounded by a lynch mob, screaming at the television? Why do I have to do this? Because I believe that my calling, my duty, my cause—the entire purpose of my life today—is to esnsure that the soil of this country, my country, is freed from the shackles of this fascist, homophobic, hate-filled lot which is the BJP, the RSS, and the entire ecosystem. That's it. And I exude that. And who were doing their deals for them? CM Ramesh? Nishikant Dubey? These were their dealmakers. I know CM Ramesh, and he also knows me only too well. He won't make that mistake.
So there's no price tag for Mahua Moitra. Execpt perhaps a few lipsticks. (laughs).
Let's come to the education crisis and the Ram Mandir corruption case... There's so much that the Opposition can do to take on the Central government at the moment. But the government seems to be distancing itself from them and moving in another direction with the delimitation issue. How do you think that is happening...
Because your (media's) number one question is not why the government is getting away with the Ram Mandir issue but why have 20 MPs and 65 MLAs of a regional party in India gone over to the BJP. That's your top concern. You have been asking me about the so-called "collapse" of the TMC and why the leaders have rebelled. But how do these things matter to the democratic fabric of India? We all know how the BJP operates.
Coming to Ram Mandir. The Ram Mandir Trust was announced in February 2020, by no less than the Prime Minister of India. Mind you, this is a private trust. Which other private trust has ever been announced by the PM of India? Also, why was it made a private trust and not a public one? So that it can be kept out of the ambit of the RTI. There are 15 trustees of this trust, and 12 of them were nominated by the BJP, the Sangh, the VHP, and the Sangh ecosystem. The notification of this was done by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Why did the MHA get involved in a private trust?
Watch the full interview only on The Quint.