Absence of 3 heavyweight leaders no obstacle for TMC’s electoral success

Kolkata: Despite the absence of three heavyweight party leaders, Trinamool Congress (TMC) has managed to win Lok Sabha seats sans their organisational leadership.

They are presently in jail in cases relating to cattle smuggling, cash-for-jobs scam and ration scam.

Following the 2021 Assembly elections, several TMC leaders came under the scanner of the Central probe agencies relating to various scams and corruption cases in the state.

To begin with, there is Partha Chatterjee, who was suspended from the party after he was put behind bars by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a cash-for-jobs scam in the state’s education department. Chatterjee is still the sitting MLA from Behala West Assembly seat which is part of the Kolkata South Constituency. TMC’s candidate for the Kolkata South seat, Mala Roy won with a vote lead of 187231 votes. She garnered a total of 615274 votes.

Chatterjee has been winning the Behala West Assembly seat since the time of the Left Front government in Bengal. Since 2011, he has remained undefeated from the seat and hence was playing a vital role in managing the party’s organisational affairs.

He was also the secretary general of the party, besides being a state cabinet minister. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, electorates in the Behala West seat regretted the absence of an MLA. However, political analysts feel that even as the TMC managed to win the Kolkata South Parliamentary seat, it will be a challenge for the party in the 2026 state elections to grab this Assembly constituency.

Another tall leader of the party Jyotipriya Mallick was arrested by the ED in the ration scam case. Besides being an MLA from Habra and a state cabinet minister, later stripped of his portfolios, he was instrumental in strengthening the party’s district organisation in North 24-Parganas district.

His absence led to speculations that the party may suffer in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. But it was observed that the party managed to bag most seats in the district except Bonga which was won by the BJP in 2019 too.

In Birbhum, TMC had always relied on its district president Anubrata Mondal who is presently lodged in Tihar Jail after being arrested by the ED in a cattle smuggling case. Mondal was the end-all and be-all for TMC’s electoral success in the district.

After his arrest, party supremo Mamata Banerjee herself took charge of overseeing the party’s organisational affairs in Birbhum and had batted for Mondal’s innocence. In the 2024 elections, TMC was able to bag both seats in Birbhum.

Party insiders believe that this electoral success proved that the party does not depend on a person but on a strong organisation led by party’s chairperson Mamata Banerjee and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.