I, ME, MYSELF: CELEBRITY MAHUA FLUMMOXES TRINAMOOL CONGRESS

Mahua Moitra is becoming increasingly unpopular in her own party and constituency, so much so that there is a buzz that she may not even get a ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections next year.

- DIBYENDU MONDAL

There is something about Mahua Moitra that makes her the darling of the left “liberati”—the way she attacks the Prime Minister on Twitter; is always combative, abrasive and arrogant; delivers rousing speeches on fascism in Parliament in impeccable English; walks around swinging her fancy foreign-made bags; exudes an air of upper crust haughtiness and confidence—superior to all and sundry. Anything but dowdy, and always neatly turned out, she is also the rare politician to get featured on the cover of a fashion magazine; she also commands a following on social media, where one will find at least one fan club dedicated to her. In short, the world is for Mahua’s to conquer— the mighty leader from Bengal, who has, if her fandom in the Delhi media has to be believed, the potential to become the Chief Minister of the state, sooner than later. Just the kind of Chief Minister that her upper crust followers want—glamorous, stylish and a far cry from many of her “provincial” party colleagues. It is a different matter that the haughtiness of Trinamool Congress’ (TMC’s) Member of Parliament from a semi-rural Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat, is making her increasingly unpopular in her own party and constituency, so much so that there is a buzz that she may not even get a ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections next year. So why is the ground slipping beneath Mahua Moitra’s feet in Bengal?

Mahua Moitra has attracted controversy ever since she was elected from the Krishnanagar seat in 2019. More often than not, she has been blamed for the infighting in the party’s Nadia district unit. She has been accused of putting the party in a difficult spot with her tweets several times, and at least on two occasions she was rebuked by party supremo Mamata Banerjee.