The Krishnanagar MP’s charge came amid an escalating struggle inside the Trinamool over who represents the party after its election setback. A rebel bloc led by Ritabrata Banerjee has sought recognition as the real Trinamool force in the Assembly, while the camp loyal to Mamata Banerjee is preparing a legal challenge to the Speaker’s decision recognising Ritabrata as Leader of the Opposition.
Moitra alleged that the BJP was trying to influence the balance of power inside the opposition by intimidating vulnerable Trinamool legislators and local figures. Her intervention sharpened the party’s public line that the rebellion is not merely an internal revolt but part of a wider political operation by the ruling side in the state.
Ritabrata Banerjee has claimed the backing of a large section of Trinamool’s 80 MLAs and has told reporters that more legislators may join his camp. A list bearing the signatures of 58 “disgruntled” MLAs was submitted to the Assembly, though the Mamata-loyal faction has questioned its authenticity and demanded scrutiny of how many legislators actually signed it.
Senior Trinamool leader Soven Deb Chatterjee has said about 30 MLAs remain with Mamata Banerjee and that several lawmakers who moved towards the “New Trinamool” camp are now contacting Kalighat, the former chief minister’s residence in Kolkata, seeking a route back. The loyalist bloc has also signalled that it will contest the Assembly decision in court, buying time for political outreach.
Ritabrata has sought to cast Mamata Banerjee in an advisory role, a formulation that has triggered resistance even from within sections of the rebel camp. Gulshan Mallick, MLA from Panchla, has said Mamata remains the party’s leader and that reducing her to a guide would be unacceptable. That position has exposed the central contradiction inside the revolt: dissatisfaction with the existing leadership structure has not automatically translated into a clean break from Mamata’s authority among Trinamool’s grassroots and legislators.
The turmoil was compounded by a video circulated by BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya, purportedly showing Trinamool leader Shahidul Miya hiding under a bed in Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar district after villagers surrounded his house. The villagers allegedly demanded refunds of money they said had been collected from beneficiaries of government housing schemes. The authenticity of the clip has not been independently established.
Malviya used the video to attack the Trinamool over corruption, saying the “cut money” issue had produced scenes of panic among those who had once exploited the poor. His post alleged that locals had accused Miya of collecting between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000 from beneficiaries. Police were said to have intervened to rescue him from the crowd.
The district Trinamool leadership has distanced the party from illegal collections, saying such activity has no sanction from the organisation. Yet the episode has fed into a wider political narrative around local-level extortion, welfare access and the power of intermediaries under the previous Trinamool administration.
Demands for refunds have surfaced in parts of Cooch Behar and South 24 Parganas after the change in government. At Patibunia village in Namkhana, a Trinamool panchayat member was reported to have returned Rs 5,000 each to 45 villagers. Similar complaints have been raised in Mathabhanga, where villagers say payments were extracted from beneficiaries seeking access to housing and welfare schemes.
