Now that the dust has more or less settled on the TMC rebellion, let’s look at what happened in view of the 2026 West Bengal elections and check whether everyone is justified in trusting the rebels. This is an emotional topic, so let us analyze the emotional topic atrocities Playing the role of victim while torturing poor Bengali rebels. You always said that you loved Mamata because she was a rebel. Now you hate this word.
Those turncoat TMC leaders who once sang for Mamata Banerjee with the enthusiasm of Shyama Sangeet presenter Pannalal Bhattacharya, who called the BJP by every name that could be accommodated in their Bengali vocabulary, and who have now signed a letter to Speaker Om Birla. Quietly merged into a party called Nationalist Citizen Party of India. No one had heard of NCPI a month ago. Now everyone has a strong opinion and a funny joke about it.
People who are unhappy are forwarding old videos. Here is Jadavpur’s favorite MP, actress, youth wing president Sayoni Ghosh, who is calling BJP anti-Bengal, anti-democracy, anti-everything. Here he is in June 2026, among the 20 MPs who are formally breaking away from TMC and joining a party they didn’t know existed when the results were declared. In television studios, in the courts of public opinion, in every WhatsApp group with forward-loving uncles the question is being asked: How could they reverse course like this? Don’t they have any shame? Don’t they have any ideology? Don’t they have any principles? No doubt, go ma go!
Let’s stop. Let us ask a different question: What about the complete lack of loyalty of the people of Jadavpur?
In May 2024, Sayoni Ghosh won from the Lok Sabha constituency by 2,58,201 votes. He received 45.83% of the votes, giving his party a huge lead in six of the seven assembly constituencies under Jadavpur. The decision was not a victory, it was a coronation. In the 2021 assembly elections, ISF stronghold Bhangar voted for Navsad Siddiqui as expected. But the rest? All TMC All love.
Come April 2026. Same constituency. Same voter. Same booth. Assembly results tell a different story. Jadavpur assembly constituency was won by BJP’s Sarbori Mukherjee by defeating the sitting TMC MLA. Sonarpur South went to BJP’s Rupa Ganguly. The Tollygunge seat went to BJP’s Papia De Adhikari, who defeated sitting TMC minister Arup Biswas. One exception: Baruipur West, where Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee remained for the TMC. Bhangar remained with ISF as always, because Bhangar is Bhangar.
Hence, the same constituency that had sent Sayoni Ghosh to Parliament in a wave had, by the next year, voted for the party he had spent his public career denouncing.
I’ll ask my question again, and this time I’d like an honest answer: Who actually switched sides?
In democracies, we have a beautiful ritual. Every few years, citizens exercise what we call suffrage on a large scale. They walk up to the booth. They press the button. If they press a different button than last time, we celebrate it with the language of sovereignty. Voter’s anger. People’s mandate. The ground slipped. Bengal has spoken. How Bengal will always reject BJP. We write long editorials about how politicians should listen to the will of the public, how the public is never wrong, how the public has the last word.
The people of Jadavpur spoke. Rather loudly. In April 2026, they exercised their sovereign right to disagree with everything they voted for in 2024. And then, the next morning, the question on every liberal’s lips was: Why does Sayoni Ghosh have no principles?
The people of Bengal sold their ideology for development. He auctioned off his secularism for the promise of an administration not run by Abhishek Banerjee in the name of Mamata Banerjee. He traded his Maa Mati Manush slogan Because they believed in a government that could actually build roads, create jobs, and stop running on fear and retaliation. They decided after 15 years and several scandals that the price of the principle exceeded their budget.
These are not my words. These are their votes.
But politicians are shameless.
Think about the exceptional standards we apply. The voter is persuaded to vote according to his conscience, even if his conscience changes direction overnight. The politician who reads that conscience and adjusts accordingly is accused of opportunism. Voters have no ideology? Good. This is what democracy looks like. Politicians have no ideology? Betrayal. Treason. Ungrateful unfortunate.
We are angry with Satabdi Roy for abandoning ship. We are troubled by Prasun Banerjee and Yusuf Pathan. we are worried All 20 MPs reading the room And logically concluded that the room was painted saffron by the same people who had sent them there.
The voters who did this are completely carefree and are at home.
There’s a reason anti-defection laws exist for politicians. This is because we believe that elected representatives must respect the mandate of their party and their voters. Appropriate. The law prohibits representatives from retailing, so they deal in wholesale. En Block. collectively.
But where is the anti-defection law for voters? Where is the accountability of a person who voted for TMC in 2021, waved the flag for Mamata in 2024 and handed over the same constituency to BJP in 2026? We do not have any such law. We have no such expectations. Because of the voters, no such question arises here. En Block. collectively.
The voter makes a mistake every five years. with pride. With ink on his finger and a spring in his step.
Sayoni Ghosh once got spoiled. In the gossip columns for a fortnight.
Democracy is for everyone except those who win and then lose, is it so? Sayoni Ghosh had a job. To represent the people of Jadavpur. The people of Jadavpur changed their mood. The question arises: will she truly reflect the mood of Jadavpur and represent her people in the Lok Sabha if she does not change herself as per the wishes of the people? You can say that he should resign and contest elections again on a different ticket. But is this necessary when people have expressed their views so strongly? Save the nation the medium-term costs and let it be built according to the will of the people.
The voters of Bengal exercised their sovereign right to change their mind. Excellent. The politicians who looked at this and drew obvious, arithmetical, completely logical conclusions are guilty of nothing more than reading the same voter list that every exit pollster, every election analyst and every television anchor read before the election and got wrong, then read again after the election and got polite.
Then, why should a group of them question the rebels who followed the new mandate of their people? The original turncoats are people from Bengal. His two years had just begun. Cut the saion loosely. Don’t blame Mamata Banerjee for her sloganeering. Blame the fickle fingers of the people of Jadavpur.
(Kamlesh Singh, a columnist and satirist, is the father of the popular Teen Taal podcast)
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(The views expressed in this article are the author’s own)
