You have to be a little pointed when you’re defending Abhishek Banerjee these days, as is the case with Moitra while senior faces make for the door and the dissidents get vocal. She will concede that his 2014 Lok Sabha ticket was a Mamata Banerjee handout, but her line is that he has made up for it with over a decade of hard work at the polls and in the organisation.
Dissent grows as leadership faces scrutiny
It has been a trying time in the West Bengal assembly with a rash of resignations and open defiance. We’ve seen some of the old guard, like Rajya Sabha members Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik, put in their notices of late.
The way some of the rebel MLAs see it, the leadership has put too much stock in Abhishek Banerjee and left the rank and file behind. There is a feeling that those with more experience are being put on the shelf, which has only fuelled the sense of a divide within the TMC.
Moitra’s case for Abhishek Banerjee
For Moitra, it’s about what you can do, not where you come from. She admits he had a leg up in 2014 thanks to his family, but says the numbers and the milestones since then speak for his standing on his own.
‘Was it because he is Mamata's nephew that he got that first ticket in 2014? You bet,’ she said. ‘But look at the last 12 years. He has been elected three times, served as our National General Secretary, put in the hours for the party, criss-crossed the state and put an organisation in place. Has he? Yes.’
She has no issue with his position. ‘I am older than him and I have accepted him as a National General Secretary,’ Moitra put it, making of it a matter of due respect and discipline.
In the end, Moitra makes it simple: ‘He has put in 12 years. The dues are paid.’ To her, the results and the longevity should be enough to put the family name to rest.
To put the lie to the nepotism talk, here is what she puts forward:
– A 2014 ticket that was a family affair
– Three Lok Sabha victories to his credit
– The kind of organisational work you don’t see on paper
– A 12-year history in the making
A contrast with past exits
Then there is the question of who is being principled and who is not. Moitra brought up Suvendu Adhikari, the former TMC man who made no bones about his opposition to Abhishek and walked out in 2020 on the strength of it.
‘I could have been a rebel and done the Suvendu thing,’ she said. She called his exit a ‘clean’ way of making a point and one she has respect for, since he laid his cards on the table with the leadership.
A direct challenge to current rebels
So why are the ones with a bone to pick with Abhishek still in the fold? Moitra wonders why they haven’t put their money where their mouth is before the next round of voting comes around.
‘If any of these 60 MLAs have a problem with him, why not have you quit and gone to the other side to win on a ticket of your own before 2026?’ she asked, in effect daring them to make a move.
Why this matters for TMC
When a senior MP like Moitra stands up for Abhishek, it changes the tenor of the nepotism row into something of a performance review. It is also a message to the ground level: we are with our National General Secretary, warts and all.
We’ll see in the coming weeks if the central leadership can hold the line with the seniors, and whether Abhishek can deliver on the stability he is being credited for.
Right now, the job is to stem the tide of departures and bring the restless ones back in. Moitra is trying to put the focus where it belongs-on accountability and outcomes-even as the naysayers keep on with their claims of power being too concentrated in one place.
