With her party's credibility getting a severe jolt in the Saradha scam, Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee is struggling in the face of an alien challenge of keeping her flock together.
Friday's arrest of MP Srinjoy Bose on suspicion of involvement in the multi-billion ponzi scam has apparently triggered a wave of distrust among the Mamata-led ranks.
After Kunal Ghosh, Srinjoy is the second Trinamool MP to be arrested in the Sharadha case and the fifth overall after East Bengal Club official Debabrata Sarkar, former DGP Rajat Majumdar, businessman Sandhir Agarwal and singer Sadanand Gogoi apart from Saradha boss Sudipta Sen Ghosh.
Insiders say Mamata has already got hints that as many as 20 Trinamool councillors in Kolkata Municipal Corporation are having other thoughts before civic polls sometime next year.
Some of these councillors are already in touch with the Bharatia Janata Party (BJP), holding office in India's Centre, and may change loyalties any day.
Expelled Trinamool leader Asif Khan has already hinted at joining BJP, reports Times of India.
This also explains why she threw her weight behind Mukul Roy and Madan Mitra promising them of a clean-chit, even after initially distancing herself from them after they had been inflicted with the scam.
Trinamool embarrassment is not likely to end any time soon. State textiles minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday in connection with Shradha and summons have reached artist and Mamata loyalist Suvaprasanna. Next on the list is Madan Mitra.
September's Trinamool-spearheaded anti-CBI protest against what they say was “unfair targeting of their leaders by the BJP-led Centre through the investigation agency” have also not bred the expected public reaction, if not backfired.
Trinamool leaders are circumspect about the outcomes of the protest because it was Mamata herself who enjoyed the fruits of CBI probes into the Nandigram and Netai killings during the Left Front regime.
It touched people's hearts because they had started losing confidence in the Left administration. The recent chain of shame and horror — Alipore police station attack, NRS Hospital lynching, denying relief materials to Birbhum villagers — now exposes a similar distrust.
The desperation was showing in Mamata's speech on Friday. “When the incident [Saradha scam] took place what was your CBI doing, your Sebi doing and even RBI?...Nowadays I see those who cheated people, like the Saradha Group who cheated people, are not getting back their money. Instead the focus is on who cheated Saradha,” Mamata thundered at a party workers' conference in Kalyani.
In reply, BJP leader Jaiprakash Majumdar retorted: “What were Mamata's men — Kunal Ghosh, Rajat Majumdar — doing then?”
Only on Tuesday, the Trinamool chief declared she would quit the CM's chair if it was proved that she had any links to the ponzi scheme.
Like a typical ponzi scheme, Saradha – a consortium of over 200 private companies – was found to be paying returns to older investors from money collected from newer subscribers to its bonds and policies.
The scam, wherein hundreds of thousands of investors in West Bengal and neighbouring states were lured into illegal money pooling activities, came to light in April last year amid allegations that a section of Trinamool Congress leaders were involved.
The group collected around Rs200-300bn from over 1.7 million depositors.
