With several lawmakers leaving the Trinamool Congress, the party is facing an existential crisis. Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra insists that it is a good purification, and all rumours of the TMC dying are just the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)'s wishful thinking.
She spoke to HT soon after news came of her colleague Sushmita Dev's resigning. Edited excerpts:
On Sushmita Dev's exit: 'People are free. It's a free country. She was in the Congress. She left the Congress and came to us. We gave her a Rajya Sabha (seat), not once, but twice. And for whatever reason... she'll have to answer to that, as to why she's gone.'
On the number of TMC MPs who have joined the BJP: 'They have 16, they have been claiming that they have 20. Now, the onus is on them. If they really had 20, I'm sure there would have been a letter out, there would have been signatures out, there would have been a joint press conference (with the BJP).'
On Sukhendu Sekhar Roy's resignation: 'Sukhendu Sekhar Roy is a political opportunist. Please understand, he was with the Congress. He was never with us.'
On the mood within the TMC: 'In some ways, we're actually happy because the shuddhi karan, the cleansing, is happening. Mamata Di, for all her instincts, for all her leadership, is a deeply emotional person with a great deal of affection and long-lasting loyalties.'
On Mamata Banerjee's leadership: 'She goes out of her way to do all of these things because she's come from the grassroots and she has this connect. Mamata Banerjee has built this party. She hasn't inherited it.'
On Abhishek Banerjee: 'He's been there 12 years. He's paid his dues. It's not that he's been parachuted from the top and sat at home and not done anything.'
On IPAC: 'What IPAC is doing today, I did, frankly, in the Congress party when I was an Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi in 2008. They taught me booth-level organisation.'
