Mamata on defections: I will bounce back

Amid ongoing “betrayals” and with more of her vintage colleagues continuing to defect from her faction of the Trinamool Congress, former Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed rage and also betrayed signs of capitulation even as she said, the rebels might take away the name (of her party) or its symbol but the spirit inside her would never die down and that she would revive her outfit and stand up to her cause once again.

“I heard that one of our MPs have resigned today. Against this backdrop, I ask all those who want to leave, leave now… I will start from scratch again,” a visibly livid Mamata Banerjee said. Enraged at “defections engineered by those in power with the help of the central agencies” but also sounding emotional, Banerjee said, “those who have luggage and baggage and those who are afraid of persecution may leave under pressure but I will continue to fight.”

Offering apology “for selecting wrong candidates who defect under pressure,” the former Chief Minister said, “I bounced back in 1998 and raised a new party… I bounced back in 2004 when we were reduced to a single MP status… I have bounced back on several occasions and remember I will bounce back once again and raise the outfit once again.

Banerjee also slammed the breakaway faction wondering why they were not going to express solidarity with fasting Sonam Wangchuk instead of “dancing to the tunes of the powers that are using ED, CBI to engineer defection in the TMC.” but before that “I request all those who are cowards and who have luggage and baggage and cannot withstand pressure of ED, CBI, court cases, police, money power please quit now … please go away before the Martyrs’ Day so that we can raise the outfit from scratch like before… remember we have not been finished… we will bounce back and rise again.”

Banerjee also slammed the breakaway faction, wondering why they were not going to express solidarity with fasting Sonam Wangchuk instead of “dancing to the tunes of the powers that are using ED, CBI to engineer defection in the TMC.”

Apparently dwelling on her faction losing the party symbol and the name with a majority of the MLAs defecting away — a la the situation in Maharashtra — Banerjee said, “You can take away the name, you can take away the symbol but you cannot take away the spirit, vision, mission and action.”

The former Chief Minister would not, however, refer to the breakaway section’s — led by Opposition Leader Ritabrata Bandopadhyay — appeal to the Election Commission of India for the symbol, name and the funds of the original TMC.

However, she warned that everyone would have to come back to her when the powers that be in Delhi would not be there. She would, however, not refer to the BJP.  “Remember when Delhi will tremble, Bengal will crumble… then what will you do,” she asked.

Breakaway leader Madan Mitra, who had defected on Wednesday, however, hit back saying “it was the arrogance of Abhishek Banerjee that had led to the defections… we were treated like dogs… we were used as door mats… humiliated every time by the leadership… Mamata Banerjee thought that her humiliation by Pranab Mukherjee, Siddhartha Shankar Roy and others were humiliation but our humiliation by Abhishek Banerjee was nothing… now they should understand what they have done.”