Former TMC MP Jawhar Sircar Says Corruption Charges Against Leaders Led To Election Defeat

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Let's take this across to Jawarharlal Sarkar, former Rajya Sabha MP and ex-CEO of Prasar Bharati. He's also been associated with the Trinamool Congress, but decided to leave the party after the RG Kar incident. Mr. Sarkar, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:00:13]How do you see the developments today in West Bengal, sir?

[00:00:17]>> Well, it was rumblings were going on for quite some time, and after this ignoble defeat, there's been a lot of demoralization, especially because the cause of the defeat has been the corruption charges against the TMC leaders, against cooperators, and many others.

[00:00:38]So, many of them are really worried.

[00:00:41]I think this breakaway group would like to seek some amount of immunity from the ruling government in in Bengal, some sort of a halfway ground.

[00:00:55]It has nothing to offer them excepting a divided opposition, a weakened Mamata.

[00:01:02]Both of these are very important, and it may lead to a split in the Parliament party, and that is the most interesting part, because the TMC is number two opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and if it split, both the ranks will come down by whichever faction we are talking about.

[00:01:21]And if it splits in the Lok Sabha, where it's very, very vocal, it's already number three in the opposition list, it will come down. So, which means that where the BJP is concerned in Delhi Parliament, it's a bit of a good riddance. So, that's the trade-off between the MLAs, because it's every MLA prop up an MP. And if say BJP has won three of the seats, and four of the TMC MLAs of that constituency decide to switch over, the MP has practically no option.

[00:01:55]Mhm. So, this is the game that's playing out.

[00:01:59]That's a call uh that's what I think.

[00:02:01]>> All right. Mr. Sarkar, we we'll we'll go to that point that you just made and that's a very important one, but talk about Ritabrata. He's just been made legally the leader of opposition in West Bengal. We've had a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party who's who's saying that this is not the opposition that we were looking at. We wanted a more strong, more principled opposition and this is not it.

[00:02:23]Is And And this is a person who, by the way, was granted that same seat that you vacated after you I know in fact spoke about the corruption in the rank and file of the TMC. So, now that he too has rebelled on exactly the same grounds, but he's making Abhishek Banerjee the object of his hatred, of his grouse, and he's saying that we still with Didi, but minus Abhishek Banerjee, minus Bhaipo.

[00:02:49]>> Uh that was incidentally a coincidence that that particular seat was first occupied by the communist Trivedi who revolted and left.

[00:02:58]It was then given to me and I had issues after the article. I left and then Ritabrata comes in. Ritabrata much younger.

[00:03:06]He's smart boy. I'm smart person who's coming from the left background, knows organizational skills, uh speaks well, and apparently this particular move has risen his stature up because he's been able to consolidate 57, 58 people together.

[00:03:25]>> Mhm.

[00:03:25]>> Uh uh good or bad, that calls for a skill that Ritabrata has shown he has the necessary skills.

[00:03:32]>> Mhm. All right. You were making that earlier point about how the opposition and the rank of TMC gets down to the third spot. TMC is also one political party that used to boast of the most firebrand female faces, the women leaders. Where are those leaders now?

[00:03:48]Not standing with Didi anymore. We're talking about Mahua Moitra, Sayani Ghosh. Where are they now?

[00:03:54]>> Mahua, I think is outside India. So, I wouldn't know.

[00:03:58]I read it somewhere. And uh the others are worth watching.

[00:04:04]Others are worth watching because they will decide on the arithmetic of their seat first. But you see, the arithmetic of the seat really doesn't matter in the long term because they won on Didi's bread.

[00:04:16]>> Mhm.