While most fingers in the Trinamool Congress turmoil have been pointing at Jharkhand BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, a far less obvious name has now stepped into the spotlight. Photographs in the media showed rebel TMC MPs huddled in a meeting at Bhupender Yadav's residence, while TMC MP Kirti Azad publicly branded the defectors as 'traitors' and accused Nishikant Dubey of orchestrating the whole affair — alleging it was Dubey who was arranging the funds being used to lure the lawmakers away.
An Unexpected Claimant From Andhra Pradesh
The name nobody had been watching is CM Ramesh, a 61-year-old BJP MP from Andhra Pradesh and a businessman by profession. Ramesh has openly asserted that he played the pivotal role in breaking away the Trinamool MPs. He didn't stop there: he insists he has the ability to flip a lawmaker from any party within just a few hours.
Speaking to the English daily Hindustan Times, Ramesh said it was he who personally made the phone calls to most of the Trinamool MPs. He also clarified that the official charge of the entire operation rested with Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. Curiously, Ramesh speaks only Telugu — he has rarely been seen or heard managing more than a few words of Hindi or English even in casual conversation.
'Persuasion Is My Skill'
Brimming with confidence, Ramesh declared, 'Persuading people is my skill, I just need a few hours and I'll convince anyone to join the BJP.' Explaining why, he added, 'I've known most of the Trinamool MPs for a long time. I've met these people regularly in the Parliament canteen. Over the past few years I've built a special bond with the TMC MPs. That bond is certainly real.'
To illustrate just how deep those ties run, Ramesh recalled an episode from 2020. When his son got married, he looked beyond party lines and invited MPs to the wedding events held in Dubai and Hyderabad. Satabdi Roy — at the time a committed loyalist of Mamata Banerjee and now among the rebels — was one of those who turned up at the celebrations.
No Money, No Posts — Just Two Assurances
Ramesh was emphatic that no money changed hands in the poaching exercise. On the rebellion of 19 Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha Trinamool MPs, he said not a single rupee was paid to any of them. According to him, the lawmakers were given only two assurances:
- First, their constituencies would be looked after, with the central and state governments carrying out as much development work as possible so their voters would not turn against them.
- Second, they would not be troubled by investigative agencies like the ED, nor by the local police or the CID. In return, all they had to do was sign on the line declaring their break from the TMC.
Ramesh repeated that the arrangement involved neither cash nor the promise of any post. He stressed that the kind of things TMC loyalists are saying about the rebels simply isn't the reality.
Mahua Moitra's Rebuttal: 'Just Bragging'
Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra brushed aside Ramesh's claims as pure boastfulness. 'Ramesh is my friend, I like him very much. But I'll say this — he likes to remain politically relevant,' she said. 'Some of us are politically relevant because we are grounded at the grassroots. Some people are politically relevant because they have a good network. Ramesh is one of the latter.'
She went on, 'CM Ramesh likes to prove his usefulness within his own party, the BJP.' Moitra then turned to a vivid analogy to make her point: 'Think of a cake being baked. The moment I learn of it, I feel I should at least add one raisin to it. In the same way, a Bengal cake is being baked right now. Ramesh is neither the baker nor does he have the ingredients, but he suddenly decided — I have a raisin or two that I want to put in the picture. And so he showed up to make these kinds of claims.'
2019 Flashback: The TDP Split He Engineered
Even so, Ramesh's words deserve a second look, because history seems to back him. In 2019, he engineered an almost identical exit from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Just as the TMC departures are being attributed to Mamata losing power, in 2019 Ramesh's then-boss Chandrababu Naidu had lost his hold on power to Jagan Reddy. At that time too — exactly as now — within a month, four of the TDP's six MPs walked out of the party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Ramesh also notes that Kakoli Ghosh and some other TMC MPs were already on the radar of law enforcement agencies before joining the BJP. Insiders found it odd that, rather than reaching for the anti-defection rulebook and complaining to the Chair of the House, party boss Chandrababu Naidu chose to stay silent. As it turned out, by the time the next elections came around he had become an alliance partner of the BJP.
The Constitution Club Election and a First Handshake
More recently, CM Ramesh was seen involved in the Constitution Club election, where the contest was between Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sanjeev Balyan — the latter said to enjoy the backing of Home Minister Amit Shah. It was here that Ramesh shook hands with Jharkhand BJP MP Nishikant Dubey for the first time. Kirti Azad, meanwhile, is once again insisting that Nishikant Dubey's hand lies behind the breaking away of the TMC lawmakers.
