Subhendu Adhikari, the most powerful Minister and leader in the Trinamool Congress after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, seems to have unfurled the banner of rebellion hitting out at his own party for neglecting Nandigram which catapulted the TMC to power in 2011.
Adhikari the State Transport Minister and a mass leader with considerable grip over a number of districts apart from his own East Midnapore on Tuesday organized a mass rally at Nandigram independent of the TMC to commemorate the Nandigram Day. There was no TMC flag to be seen in the meeting.
Amid speculations of his future political move Adhikari --- whose father Sisir and brother Dibyendu Adhikari are local TMC MPs --- said that Nandigram movement was a people’s movement partaken by people from all walks of life adding “this movement did not belong to any particular individual (apparently the Chief Minister).”
He rued “no one save me came here all these years and after 13 years, a few people are now coming here as the elections are approaching…. But these people should remember that they should come here after elections too if they are coming here just before the polls
The meeting was organized under the auspices of Bhumi Ucchhed Pratirodh Committee the platform which was created to fight the Left Front Government between 2007 and 2011. Reminding that he would “not use a platform of BUPC for political gains,” Adhikary said .
“I used to come alone during those days and stood by the people,” he said “whatever I will have to say regarding my next course of action, I will say from a political platform. I will say everything but not from this pious stage.”
In a significant departure from the Trinamool traditions there was not a single poster of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to be seen in the rally and neither did Adhikari for once mentioned the Chief Minister’s name in his hour-long speech in the rally.
Earlier in a separate meeting he had without taking the name of TMC MP and Chief Minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee who has been promoted as the TMC youth wing chief in place of Adhikari the rebel leader said “I have neither been air-dropped nor risen up the ranks automatically,” Adhikari said “I have reminding how he had “climbed up step by step by step,”
Adhikari’s posters have of late been appearing in many districts like Purulia, Nadia, Murshidabad, East Midnapore, Malda, Darjeeling andBankura without identifying him with the TMC or the Chief Minister.
Critics have floated two views on Adhikary, perhaps the most powerful leader to rebel after Mukul Roy who left the party in 2018. While some link his rebellion with alleged “promotion of dynastic rule by the Chief Minister who has been promoting Abhishek Banerjee at the cost of Adhikary.”