Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh has attacked party MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, calling him a “bigger Shahjahan” without naming him directly. This came hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday said the ruling Trinamool had been shielding a “criminal” for two months, referring to now arrested Sandeshkhali TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan.
The PM made the comment during a public address in Hooghly district. The West Bengal police Thursday arrested Shahjahan in a case related to an attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on 5 January. He has also been accused of converting agricultural land into fish ponds and sexually assaulting local women with his allies.
Speaking on Bengali news channels Friday, Ghosh took aim at Sudip Bandopadhyay amid a flurry of allegations against the Kolkata North MP and leader of the TMC in the Lok Sabha.
Ghosh Friday also announced on X that he wished to resign from the party posts.
আমি @AITCofficial এর রাজ্য কমিটির অন্যতম সাধারণ সম্পাদক ও মুখপাত্রের পদ থেকে ইস্তফা দিয়েছিলাম।
খবর পেয়েছি, শুধু মুখপাত্র থেকে ইস্তফার অংশটি গ্রহণ করা হয়েছে।
দলের কাছে আমার সবিনয় অনুরোধ, সাধারণ সম্পাদক পদ থেকেও ইস্তফাটি গ্রহণ করা হোক। আমি ওই পদে থাকব না।
আমি শুধু কর্মী…
— Kunal Ghosh (@KunalGhoshAgain) March 2, 2024
In another post on X, Ghosh asked central agencies ED and CBI to probe “a large amount” paid to Sudip Bandopadhyay or a hospital on his behalf, when he was hospitalised while in judicial custody in 2017, in the Rose Valley chit fund scam case. He raised the possibility of a connection between such payments and a “coal scam” in the state and demanded the five-time TMC parliamentarian’s arrest for further investigation.
.@dir_ed @CBIHeadquarters
The bank accounts of Sudip Banerjee, MP and payments on behalf of him to Apollo, Bhubaneswar must be investigated.
When he was in custody, whether a large amount paid to him or paid to hospital on behalf of him or not, that should be probed. If it is…— Kunal Ghosh (@KunalGhoshAgain) March 2, 2024
Ghosh alleged Bandopadhyay is colluding with the BJP. “In the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the TMC will fight 41 out of 42 seats because the Kolkata North seat will see a BJP versus BJP fight,” he said.
He also called the two opposition leaders in the Lok Sabha from West Bengal “Modi’s men”, referring to Sudip Bandopadhyay and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
While making his wish to resign from party posts public, Ghosh wrote on X that he would continue as a “worker” of the party even though he is a “misfit”. Hours earlier, he had removed his political affiliations from his X profile bio and described himself as a ‘journalist’ and ‘social activist’.
Speaking to ThePrint Saturday, Ghosh said he is unwilling to talk further as he has already said what he wanted to say.
Asked if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee or Abhishek Banerjee had reached out to him, he refused to comment, saying there was no change in his stand.
ThePrint reached Bandopadhyay through WhatsApp and phone calls but did not get any response.
Last week, Ghosh, a prominent face from the party and who spearheads press conferences on behalf of the TMC regularly, was not invited to a party meeting for preparations for the upcoming Brigade rally on 10 March when Mamata will address a gathering as the chief speaker.
Like Ghosh, TMC MLA Tapas Roy has spoken out against Bandopadhyay. Without naming his party colleague, Roy said, “Some do not want to work hard but want to enjoy the cream.”
He also said that if Bandopadhyay is re-nominated from the Kolkata North seat, he will not work for his campaign, a decision he has already conveyed to the party high command.
Speaking at a news conference Sunday, Kunal Ghosh even urged the TMC to nominate Women and Child Development Minister Sashi Panja from Kolkata North seat instead of Sudip Bandopadhyay. So far, no date has been fixed by the TMC to announce its candidates list for the Lok Sabha polls.
However, Bandopadhyay by virtue of his posts yields significant power in this constituency apart from being the party’s parliamentary leader. His wife and actor Nayana Bandopadhyay is a sitting MLA from Chowringhee under this Lok Sabha constituency, and Bandopadhyay also heads the North Kolkata district.
But sources within TMC say that the leadership isn’t very happy with Ghosh’s outburst. Earlier, Mamata Banerjee had told her leaders not to raise grievances against colleagues in the media and discuss it internally instead.
The TMC has accepted Kunal Ghosh’s resignation from the post of spokesperson and is yet to take a decision on his state general secretary post. But both Kunal Ghosh and Tapas Roy, both prominent faces in political circles here, have said they will abstain from campaigning for Bandopadhyay if he is picked as a candidate.
According to political analyst and science professor at Rabindra Bharati University Biswanath Chakraborty, this internal squabbling will not impact the TMC’s political future in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“TMC does not have a solid ideology; such internal fights would not crack any ideological backbone but only show people that the TMC has no ideology, and that power politics plays a role — the leaders who yield high power rule,” he said.
The BJP refused to comment on the TMC infighting in the open, calling it the party’s internal matter.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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