KOLKATA, 18 September (H.S.) : Reacting sharply to the ongoing internal turmoil within the Trinamool Congress and the decisive ruling by the Election Commission, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has termed the developments as the ultimate fall of arrogance. The poll panel's interim order placing a freeze on the party name and traditional symbol has dealt a severe blow to both rival factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Ritabrata Banerjee ahead of the upcoming Assembly by-elections.

With the commission's directive, neither camp is permitted to use the All India Trinamool Congress designation or the iconic twin flowers symbol, forcing both factions to adopt new names and interim symbols before entering the electoral fray.

Addressing reporters who pointed out that Mamata Banerjee had once mockingly referred to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as Vanish Kumar, only for her own party identity to vanish, Chief Minister Adhikari endorsed the poll panel's actions. He firmly rejected claims that the Bharatiya Janata Party had any direct involvement in the fracturing of the opposition party.

I will not say much on this. The Election Commission took this decision following its own rules and after hearing all parties concerned, Adhikari stated. She failed to keep her party united. The party has split into three or four factions, and the entire responsibility lies with her. The Bharatiya Janata Party has no direct role in this.

Attributing the unprecedented crisis to a failure of leadership and hubris, the Chief Minister recalled a prediction he made in Haldia on the night of the assembly election vote count, where he had asserted that the ruling faction's political dominance would collapse. Citing a traditional Sanskrit maxim regarding extreme pride and its inevitable downfall, he remarked, Excessive pride destroyed Lanka, and excessive arrogance destroyed the Kauravas. Whoever becomes arrogant, God shatters that arrogance. The Almighty is watching everything.

Furthermore, Adhikari alleged that the party's downfall is compounded by what he described as disrespect toward Hindu traditions and deities. He accused the opposition leadership of previously disparaging religious practices, asserting that their political demise is the consequence of divine retribution.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh