In the run-up to the West Bengal election, a video of Mamata Banerjee chastising Ritabrata Banerjee had gone viral, drawing widespread amusement. At a SIR protest meeting, Ritabrata had gone into an oratorical flourish before Mamata, in her own inimitable manner, cut him off publicly and asked him to focus on the burning issue of the day. Little did anyone know that Ritabrata, MLA from Uluberia Purba, would grow from a footnote in Bengal politics to the Leader of Opposition in a sensational palace coup that has left Bengal politics reeling. TOI spoke to leaders and pundits who have known Ritabrata for a long time to piece together his story.
What’s Ritabrata’s background?
While few would have guessed this trajectory, many who have watched Ritabrata for a long time recall him as someone with intellect, the gift of the gab and deep knowledge of politics. Belonging to Jadavpur, a middle-class locality in South Kolkata, Ritabrata studied at South Point High School, one of the most famous schools in South Kolkata, later graduated with English Honours from Asutosh College and subsequently completed a Masters Degree in English from Calcutta University. Belonging to a family that migrated from opar bangla, (erstwhile East Pakistan and current-day Bangladesh), Ritabrata grew up to be a liberal Left leader.General Secretary of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, Ashutosh Chatterjee, recalls their association from college politics days. At that time, Ritabrata was actively involved with the Students’ Federation of India, the student wing of CPI(M). Ashutosh remembers watching Bengal’s latest Leader of Opposition during various college elections, when he himself was canvassing for Chhatra Parishad, the student wing of Congress, and being impressed with Ritabrata’s sharp speeches. That Ritabrata made a mark at that time can be gauged from the fact that he became all-India general secretary of SFI and was catapulted to the Rajya Sabha from the Left in 2014 at the age of 34. For Left, which often rewards leaders after a long grind at grassroots, such elevation showed deep trust in Ritabrata’s ability.
How did he perform in Rajya Sabha?
Ritabrata Banerjee’s Rajya Sabha record lives up to his persona of a scholar MP. PRS records him with 823 questions, 275 debates/interventions and 77% attendance in his two stints so far. Between 2014 and his 2017 CPI(M) expulsion, his line was recognisably mirroring the traditional Left issues regarding farmers, workers, public institutions and Centre-state neglect. After the expulsion, Parliament records show questions on farmers’ income in West Bengal, railways’ share in freight movement, recognising Hindi and Bangla as official languages at the UN, among others.After TMC nominated him to the Rajya Sabha in 2024, his interventions moved closer to Trinamool’s cultural-federal line of Bengal identity, Centre-state friction and institutional recognition for Bengal’s history.
Why the break from CPI(M)?
While Ritabrata Banerjee was considered a protege of former chief minister and Left veteran Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, and some even called him the blue-eyed boy of the Left, his penchant for developing a brand of his own while remaining within a regimented party like CPI(M) did not go unnoticed. It was often at odds with communist culture.He was eventually expelled from the party after disciplinary proceedings that involved allegations of personal conduct and anti-party activity. He repeatedly had fallouts with powerful Left leader Mohammed Salim, and it was a Salim-led committee that finally signed off on his expulsion.When contacted by TOI, Salim still appeared dismissive of Ritabrata, notwithstanding his newfound fame. Salim said, “We sneezed and TMC caught the virus and now they are suffering from fever. It was RSS which had originally propped up TMC and now the party has reached its expiry date and hence the recycling process is on.”The Left leader categorically refused to wade into Ritabrata’s early days in politics, saying that for the party, once someone is out of its structure, it becomes a closed chapter. Ashutosh, on his part, remembered the time when both were on the same side and Ritabrata even campaigned for him in the 2016 Assembly elections. Ashutosh recalls that by then, the youth leader he had crossed roads with during student politics had morphed into a “flamboyant political personality”.
How did Ritabrata gain a foothold in TMC?
According to many political watchers, in his ‘cooling period’ Ritabrata needed to reinvent himself. Dented by leaked lurid images and allegations of sexual exploitation, which he denied, Ritabrata needed a reboot. The trope of being the Bengali intellectual who could quote Marx at will had run its course.And he took up the difficult task of helping TMC grow where it was weakest, in the tea gardens of North Bengal, where the green fields have traditionally bled red. He tapped into his old Left connections to get them to join TMC’s worker organisations. He was later awarded the coveted post of head of INTTUC, the trade-union wing of TMC. Till date, he remains the leader of the organisation and, through his interventions in Rajya Sabha, has raised several issues close to workers in Bengal.While the jury is out on how successful he was in reenergising the party in North Bengal, it was enough to impress Abhishek Banerjee. After Ritabrata was nominated to the Rajya Sabha following Jawhar Sircar’s resignation, Abhishek Banerjee posted on X: “This recognition is truly well-deserved, reflecting the tireless effort @RitabrataBanerj has invested in strengthening the organization and advocating for trade union workers across WB. While it may take time, commitment, performance and hard work are always rewarded in the end.”Ritabrata Banerjee, on his part, remained deferential to Mamata Banerjee, once famously saying in an interview that he had understood Lenin’s idea of politics by watching Mamata Banerjee.
Why is Ritabrata the chosen one?
According to political analyst Subhamoy Maitra, Ritabrata is an intelligent political operator with just the right credentials. He has a well-known precedent of being stridently anti-BJP in public posturing and hence the Left, which is hoping to seize the emerging political vacuum in the state, will have a hard time completely discrediting him. Maitra also believes Ritabrata’s image of being honest has gone in his favour. In fact, the new Leader of Opposition in Bengal is using that as a prominent calling card, saying that no one is shouting “chor, chor” when he visits any area.Ashutosh, though, completely dismisses Ritabrata as a “performing doll” who has never been a “good organisational leader”. While Salim clearly sees this breakaway faction of TMC as a handiwork of TMC and BJP, Ashutosh explores two theories. According to him, one possibility is that this is an internal game by TMC to stop the haemorrhaging of party MLAs. Many were reportedly looking to cross over, formally or informally, to other parties including Congress, and this development puts a temporary brake on it.However, the more plausible theory, the Congress leader says, is the “Eknath Banerjee” model, a clear reference to the Eknath Shinde drama in Maharashtra politics. Ashutosh takes a jibe that just as we have a double-engine government now, this is a double-O opposition, which is “Opportunist Opposition”. He says once the honeymoon period is over, people will express their displeasure with the BJP government, and co-opting the opposition is the easiest way to nullify such issues, at least on the floor of the Assembly. If Ritabrata is truly still an opposition leader, why is he not protesting the hawker eviction going on across Bengal, is his pointed question.Political analyst Maitra, on his part, believes Ritabrata’s brief “chance meeting” with Suvendu Adhikari in Delhi may have been a message to those who were looking to switch that he was the man of the moment. At the end of the day, Ritabrata may well be a piece in the larger power game in BJP, where Suvendu Adhikari is also looking for some amount of political cushioning against any future attempt at outmanoeuvring, according to the veteran political pundit.
How did Ritabrata manage to convince the Muslim leaders?
Now, the obvious question arises: if the defection is at the behest of BJP, how did around 17 Muslim MLAs also rebel publicly? CPM leader Mohd Salim has a rather blunt take on it. According to him, BJP never takes Muslims publicly, but rather relies on sidekicks to fill certain vacuums in political space. Similarly, TMC was an umbrella organisation, and many fundamentalists from different religions took shelter there. Now all those with corrupt records are looking to seek shelter, opines the former MP.Suspended TMC spokesperson Riju Datta on Facebook has said that this is merely Dhurandhar 1. Dhurandhar 2 will happen in the parliamentary party realignment. He believes it is not time for TMC, but for “Mamata Congress”, and that the supremo needs to take the cudgel of protest to reinvigorate the rank and file. But till then, the party will continue to face an existential crisis.“A week is a long time in politics,” goes the old Harold Wilson line. In Bengal, it often feels much longer. Few politicians embody that 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 before him have mistaken a moment for a movement. Ritabrata himself would know that better than most.But for now, Bengal politics revolves around a man whom many had written off years ago. The former comrade who was once expelled from the Left now finds himself leading the opposition to the very party that gave him a second life. No one can consign him to a mere footnote in Bengal politics.