Mamata puts on brave face amid twin setbacks

A day after a rebel faction of the Trinamool Congress seized control of the party's headquarters, and hours after one of her closest aides quit all organisational posts, Mamata Banerjee broke a prolonged public silence on Saturday with a defiant Facebook live address — accusing the BJP of unleashing a “reign of terror” on her party, dismissing the loss of both her headquarters and her state president as inconsequential, and announcing that she would personally take charge of rebuilding the Bengal unit herself.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

The twin blows arrived in rapid succession.

On Friday night, MLAs loyal to Leader of the Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee took over the party’s operational headquarters on the EM Bypass, changing the locks and putting up fresh signage naming senior MLA Arup Roy, not Banerjee, as party chairperson. MLA Akhruzzaman, defending the takeover, said: “This is our party office and it will remain our party office.” On Saturday afternoon, Chandrima Bhattacharya — appointed West Bengal president barely a month earlier — resigned from every post she held, telling reporters she had been hurt after Banerjee questioned her over the episode: “I was so sad about this question,” she said, adding that “there is no question of going to Kalighat again.”