Updated: December 2, 2020 7:49:31 pm
Suvendu Adhikari, Deputy of the Tamluk Trinamool Congress. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
Leader of the Rebel Congress Trinamool Suvendu Adhikari met with the party’s Lok Sabha MP, Abhishek Banerjee, and political strategist Prashant Kishor, on Tuesday night (December 1), after which the TMC said Suvendu’s complaints have been resolved.
Although Suvendu himself has not talked about the crisisAnd it seems likely that he will remain in the TMC for the time being at least, the extraordinary efforts the party has made to keep him in the fold underscores the importance it attaches to himself and, indeed, to his entire family of powerful politicians.
As you cross the bridge over the Rupnarayan River at Kolaghat in the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, it doesn’t take long to realize that you have entered the fortress of the Adhikaris.
Posters, banners, and even conversations at roadside tea stalls attest to the importance and popularity of the area’s preeminent in-laws.
For the past two decades, the Adhikari family has dominated the politics of the district, repeatedly winning seats in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha in the area, and building a solid foundation for the Trinamool Congress there and beyond.
The Beginning: Sisir Adhikari
The 79-year-old family patriarch Sisir Adhikari, now in his third term in Lok Sabha, started in Congress and moved on to Trinamool Congress after Mamata Banerjee founded the new party in 1998.
Sisir Adhikari first entered the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1982, as the MLA of the Kanthi (Dakshin) constituency Congress. He entered the Assembly again from the same seat in 2001, and became an Egra MLA in 2006.
Read | Suvendu shouldn’t stay with TMC another minute: BJP MP
In 2009, Sisir Adhikari became a deputy in Kanthi’s Trinamool Congress, vacated the seat of Egra Vidhan Sabha and became Minister of State for Rural Development in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s UPA 2 government.
Sisir also won the 2014 and 2019 elections from the same seat and is now the highest-ranking TMC MP in Lok Sabha.
Next generation: the Adhikari brothers
Suvendu Adhikari at a rally on Sunday. (Express photo by Partha Paul)
Suvendu, Sisir’s son, aged 49, whose rebellion against Mamata Banerjee it has thrown the Trinamool into chaos, it has spread the family’s influence beyond the traditional strongholds of Purba and Paschim Medinipur to various other parts of the state.
Suvendu began his political career with the student front of Congress and demonstrated strong organizational skills at a young age. He was general secretary of the student union at Prabhat Kumar College in Kanthi, joined the cooperative movement together with his father Sisir, and became a councilor in Kanthi Township at the age of 25.
Read also | The importance of Suvendu Adhikari – for TMC and BJP
In 1999, he was the point man in Nitish Sengupta’s Lok Sabha campaign, who won the seat from Kanthi (then known as Contai) on a TMC ticket.
Suvendu himself contested the former Mugberia Assembly seat in 2001, but lost to Kiranmoy Nanda, the veteran West Bengal politician and former Minister of Fisheries, who won the seat continuously from 1977 to 2011.
In 2004, Suvendu contested the seat of Tamluk Lok Sabha and was defeated by another giant of the Left Front, Lakshman Seth.
Suvendu entered the West Bengal Assembly from his father’s former Kanthi (Dakshin) seat in 2006. Three years later, he beat Seth to win the Lok Sabha election with a TMC ticket from Tamluk, and he also won the following Lok Sabha elections in 2014 from the same seat.
In the 2016 Assembly elections, he was elected MLA from the Nandigram constituency in the Purba Medinipur district. He vacated the seat of Tamluk Lok Sabha and became an important minister in the second government of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
Suvendu’s younger brother, Dibyendu Adhikari, 43, won the by-election to the Kanthi (Dakshin) family seat that Suvendu vacated in 2009. He was re-elected to the seat in the 2011 and 2016 Assembly elections.
After Suvendu vacated the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat to become a minister in West Bengal, Dibyendu contested the by-election and won, keeping the seat in the family. He was re-elected as a Tamluk deputy in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A third brother, Soumendu Adhikari, is currently president of the Kanthi Municipal Corporation.
Suvendu’s Moment: The Nandigram Upheaval
Suvendu’s rise began after Mamata Banerjee’s Nandigram movement in Purba Medinipur in 2007, which he coordinated on the ground. The Nandigram unrest played a major role in the defeat of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government in the 2011 Assembly elections and the end of the 34-year rule of the Left Front in West Bengal.
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Before the Nandigram movement, the last word in Purba Medinipur belonged to Lakshman Seth, the leader of the CPI (M) who was a deputy of that party for Tamluk for three terms between 1998 and 2009 (the CPM, in fact, had dominated the seat in successive Lok Sabha elections of 1980, with the exception of 1996, when it was won by a candidate for Congress).
Beginning with the Nandigram movement, Suvendu gradually tightened his hold on the bases in Purba Medinipur (the district was created in 2002 with the fork of the old Midnapore district) and successfully toppled Seth.
Read | Where have you been for 13 years ?, asks Suvendu at the TMC rallies in Nandigram.
He impressed Mamata, and for the next several years, she gave him and his family respect and importance, and rewarded them for their dedication to the party.
Suvendu’s rise in the Trinamool Congress
Suvendu quickly strengthened the party organization and increased his own influence beyond Purba Medinipur.
As his dominance expanded throughout the region, he came to have significant influence in all three districts of the Jangalmahal area – Bankura, Purulia, and Paschim Medinipur – in addition to his native Purba Medinipur territory. These four districts together have nine Lok Sabha and 63 seats in the Assembly, and today Suvendu is believed to be in a position to influence the election results in a large part of these seats.
Over the years, Mamata has also used Suvendu’s organizational skills in other parts of the state. He has worked as an observer for TMC in many areas.
Read | BJP and TMC discuss Suvendu Adhikari, Congress intervenes
Political analysts estimate that his base of support, and therefore his area of influence, in fact extends to 110 constituencies of the Assembly, which include parts of Malda, Murshidabad, South Dinajpur, Hooghly and Howrah (Rural).
He has worked as a TMC observer in many of these areas, mainly in Jangalmahal, Malda, and Murshidabad for a long time.
Suvendu also has powerful control over parts of the party organization. It has a strong influence in the Haldia harbor area and among the unions in the Haldia industrial zone. Through his involvement in the cooperative movements of the TMC in South Bengal, he has become the pre-eminent leader of the party in many areas.
The friction points within the match
Within the TMC organization it is said that while it is “Didi” Mamata who attracts unparalleled support and affection throughout the state, if there is another popular leader who approaches, it is “Dada” Suvendu.
The equations began to change within the party after 2014 when, in the wake of the Lok Sabha elections, Mamata began bringing her nephew Abhishek Banerjee to the head of the organization.
While Suvendu remained one of the party’s most powerful leaders, insiders say he became increasingly unhappy with the “attitude” of some TMC leaders. He made it clear that he would work only on “Mamata’s instructions” and no one else’s.
For the past few years, Suvendu has been absent from key party events and rallies.
On April 21, 2017, he did not attend TMC’s organizational meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, reportedly citing health concerns.
In March 2020, he was once again found absent from a party event at the same location. 📣 Express Explained is now on Telegram
Amid media reports of Suvendu’s unhappiness at the TMC, he put the party in an awkward position once again by missing a government program in Jhargram on August 9, 2020, to mark International Populations Day. Indigenous People of the World.
According to a TMC insider, Suvendu has been expressing discontent against a section of leaders and certain party policies for the past six months. “He (Suvendu) had mentioned to the Chief Minister that the party’s image was being tarnished with complaints of money cuts (extortion), incessant violence and arrogance from some senior leaders,” said this TMC leader.
Where Suvendu can harm Trinamool
In 2019, the TMC lost nine of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Purulia, Jhargram, Murshidabad, Malda, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Bishnupur – areas where he is known as a mass leader and is believed to have had significant influence. .
Before the apparent deal Monday night, TMC insiders had said that Suvendu had decided to leave the party at least six months ago and was focused on building his own strength. The BJP leadership had issued statements that they believed Suvendu would cross soon.
A section of TMC leaders believe that if Suvendu and his family finally join the BJP, the impact would be felt not only in the 110 seats in the Assembly that are identified as their stronghold, but in the 294 seats in the state. The TMC frame base could break vertically and a large section could move from Didi to “Dada”.
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Mamata is aware of the damage Suvendu can cause; This is probably why she has announced that she will be the party’s observer in the 294 seats in the next elections to the Assembly.
Another section of the TMC, however, cautions against ruling out Mamata. Despite all his organizational strength and popularity, Suvendu can’t really match the Chief Minister, this section believes. There is concern about the Suvendu revolt at the moment, but the situation could change quickly once Mamata starts campaigning in these districts, these leaders say.
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