Pictures by Bibhash Lodh/BS News Agency.
Sanchita Chatterjee, BS News Agency: Former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, Women and Child Welfare Minister Shashi Panja, Sports Minister Arup Biswas and several other heavyweight candidates of the party have been defeated by significant margins in their respective constituencies.
Senior leader of Malda district and former Tourism Minister Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury has directly pointed the finger at Trinamool Congress All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee for this.
After the election results, he blamed Mr. Banerjee for the party's 'disaster' in the media, saying, "There is only one person who has destroyed the party bit by bit. He is Abhishek Banerjee. ... The way he took the party is like a corporate house, here in Bengal [politics] does not work in a corporate house."
Trinamool Congress candidate and senior party leader Atin Ghosh said in a media interview, "Abhishek Banerjee is a modern leader. He took the help of modern technology to give the party an organized shape. But modern technology cannot understand the pulse of the people with the Trinamool."
He feels that the Trinamool level needs such leadership who will directly "try to mix with the people and understand the sentiments of the people."
Due to the 'anti-party comments', the Trinamool Congress has sent show cause notices to leaders and spokespersons like Riju Dutta, Papiya Ghosh, Kohinoor Majumdar and Kartik Ghosh, according to party sources.