Ahead of the West Bengal elections, a video of Mamata Banerjee scolding Ritabrata Banerjee had gone viral, garnering widespread amusement. At a protest meeting of SIR, Ritabrata had started making speeches, but Mamata, in her inimitable style, publicly cut him off and asked him to focus on the burning issue of the day. No one knew that Ritabrata, MLA from Uluberia Purba, would evolve from a footnote in Bengal politics to the leader of the opposition in a sensational palace coup that has shaken Bengal politics. TOI spoke to leaders and pundits who have known Ritabrata for a long time to put together their story.
What is Ritabrata’s background?
While few would have predicted this trajectory, many of those who have observed Ritabrata for a long time remember him as a man of intelligence, a gift for tact and a deep knowledge of politics. Hailing from Jadavpur, a middle-class area of South Kolkata, Ritabrata attended South Point High School, one of the most renowned schools of South Kolkata, later graduated with English Honors from Ashutosh College and later completed a master’s degree in English from the University of Calcutta. Belongs to a family that migrated from oper bangla(then East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh), Ritabrata grew up to be a liberal leftist leader.West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary Ashutosh Chatterjee recalls his association with college politics from his days. At that time, Ritabrata was actively associated with the Students’ Federation of India, the student wing of the CPI(M). Ashutosh remembers seeing Bengal’s latest opposition leader during various college elections, when he himself was campaigning for the Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of the Congress, and was impressed by Ritabrata’s sharp speeches. Ritabrata had left his mark at that time, this can be gauged from the fact that he became the All India General Secretary of SFI and in 2014, at the age of 34, he reached the Rajya Sabha from the Left. For the Left, which often rewards leaders after a long struggle at the grassroots level, such a promotion showed deep confidence in Ritabrata’s ability.
How was his performance in Rajya Sabha?
Ritabrata Banerjee’s Rajya Sabha record is in line with his personality of a learned parliamentarian. The PRS has recorded 823 questions, 275 debates/interventions and 77% attendance in his two terms so far. Between 2014 and the CPI(M) expulsions of 2017, his line was clearly reflecting traditional Left issues regarding farmers, workers, public institutions and centre-state neglect. After the expulsion, Parliament records include issues like farmers’ income in West Bengal, share of railways in freight traffic, recognition of Hindi and Bengali as official languages in the United Nations, among other issues.After TMC nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in 2024, his intervention moved closer to Trinamool’s cultural-federal line of Bengal identity, centre-state friction and institutional recognition for Bengal’s history.
Why the separation from CPI(M)?
While Ritabrata Banerjee was considered a protege of former Chief Minister and Left stalwart Buddhadev Bhattacharya, and some even called him the blue-eyed boy of the Left, his interest in developing a brand of his own while remaining within a dedicated party like the CPI(M) did not go unnoticed. This was often contrary to communist culture.He was eventually expelled from the party following disciplinary proceedings that included allegations of personal conduct and anti-party activity. He had frequent disagreements with powerful leftist leader Mohammad Salim and the committee led by Salim ultimately signed off on his expulsion.When contacted by TOI, Salim seemed dismissive of Ritabrata, despite his newfound fame. “We sneezed and TMC caught the virus and now they are suffering from fever. It was the RSS that originally supported TMC and now the party has reached its expiry date and so the recycling process is on,” Salim said.The Left leader flatly refused to go into Ritabrata’s early days in politics and said that for the party, once someone is out of its structure, it becomes a closed chapter. Ashutosh, on his part, recalled the time when both were on the same side and Ritabrata even campaigned for him in the 2016 assembly elections. Ashutosh recalls that the young leader, whom he came in contact with during student politics, had by then transformed into a “flamboyant political personality”.
How did Ritabrata enter TMC?
According to many political observers, Ritabrata needed to re-establish himself in his ‘cooling period’. Hurt by leaked lewd images and allegations of sexual abuse, which he denied, Ritabrata needed a reboot. The obsession with being a Bengali intellectual who could quote Marx at will had done its job.And he took on the difficult task of helping the TMC grow where it was weakest, in the tea gardens of north Bengal, where lush green fields have traditionally turned red. He used his old leftist connections to join TMC worker organisations. He was later awarded the prestigious post of head of INTTUC, the trade-union wing of TMC. To date, he remains the leader of the organization and through his interventions in the Rajya Sabha, has raised many issues related to workers in Bengal.While the jury is out on how successful he was in reactivating the party in North Bengal, it was enough to impress Abhishek Banerjee. After Ritabrata was nominated to the Rajya Sabha following the resignation of the Jawahar government, Abhishek Banerjee posted on Twitter: “This recognition is truly well-deserved, reflecting the tireless effort put in by @RitabrataBanerj in strengthening the organization and advocating for trade union workers across West Bengal. “Although it may take time, commitment, performance and hard work always pays off in the end.”Ritabrata Banerjee, on his part, remained respectful towards Mamata Banerjee, once saying in an interview that he had understood Lenin’s thought about politics by looking at Mamata Banerjee.
Why was Ritabrata chosen?
According to political analyst Subhamoy Maitra, Ritabrata is an intelligent political operator with perfect credentials. He has a well-known precedent of being openly anti-BJP in public and hence the Left, hoping to seize the emerging political void in the state, will find it difficult to completely discredit him. Maitra also believes that Ritabrata’s reputation of being honest has worked in his favor. In fact, the new leader of the opposition in Bengal is using it as a major calling card, saying that no one shouts “thief, thief” when he visits any area.However, Ashutosh completely dismisses Ritabrata as a “performing doll” who has never been a “good organizational leader”. While Salim clearly sees this breakaway faction of TMC as the handiwork of TMC and BJP, Ashutosh explores two theories. According to him, one possibility is that this is an internal game of TMC to stop the bloodshed of party MLAs. Many people were reportedly looking to formally or informally join other parties including Congress and this development has put a temporary break on it.However, the Congress leader says the more plausible theory is the “Eknath Banerjee” model, an apparent reference to the Eknath Shinde drama in Maharashtra politics. Ashutosh sarcastically said that just as we currently have a double engine government, similarly this is the Double-O opposition, which is an “opportunistic opposition”. He says that once the honeymoon period is over, people will express their resentment towards the BJP government and taking on the opposition is the easiest way to end such issues at least on the floor of the Assembly. If Ritabrata is indeed still an opposition leader, then why is he not protesting against the ongoing eviction of hawkers across Bengal, is his pointed question.Political analyst Maitra believes that Ritabrata’s brief “chance meeting” with Suvendu Adhikari in Delhi could have been a message to those looking to make the switch that he was the man of the moment. According to the seasoned political pundit, at the end of the day, Ritabrata could be a part of the larger power game in the BJP, where Suvendu Adhikari is also looking for some degree of political support against any kind of maneuvering in the future.
How did Ritabrata succeed in convincing the Muslim leaders?
Now, the obvious question arises: If the defection took place at the behest of the BJP, then how come about 17 Muslim MLAs also rebelled publicly? CPM leader Mohammad Salim has a blunt opinion on this. According to him, BJP never takes on Muslims publicly but depends on acolytes to fill certain vacancies in the political space. Similarly, TMC was an umbrella organization and many radicals from different religions had taken refuge there. The former MP believes that now all those with corrupt records are seeking refuge.Suspended TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta has said on Facebook that this is just a scam. Dhurandhar 2 will take place in the reorganization of the parliamentary party. He believes this is not the time of TMC, but of “Mamata Congress”, and the supremo needs to lead the opposition to reinvigorate the rank and file. But till then the party will continue to struggle with the existential crisis.Harold Wilson’s old line says, “A week is a long time in politics.” In Bengal, this often feels much longer. Few politicians embrace this better than Ritabrata Banerjee. Whether this rebellion turns into a durable political formation or collapses under the weight of its own contradictions remains to be seen. Many people before him have mistaken a moment for a movement. Ritabrata himself would know this better than anyone else.But for now, Bengal politics revolves around a man whom many had written off years ago. The former comrade, once expelled from the Left, now finds himself leading the opposition to the same party that gave him a second life. No one can limit him to a mere footnote in Bengal politics.
