Embarrassment for Trinamool as MLA describes party as 'company', Mamata as 'brand'

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MLA from Howrah (North) constituency, Gautam Chowdhury, has left the party embarrassed by described Trinamool as a "company" and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the "brand" of that company.

Chowdhury's remarks virtually echoed what leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari had said at a public rally on Thursday.

"Trinamool Congress is a private limited company, whose owner is the Chief Minister and the Managing Director is her nephew (Abhishek Banerjee)," Adhikari had said on Thursday.

On Friday, while speaking to mediapersons in Howrah, Chowdhury said that Trinamool Congress is like a company whose brand is the Chief Minister.

"We are non-entities. We are like medical representatives in pharmaceutical companies. Mamata Banerjee is everything in the party," Chowdhury said.

After his remarks, Trinamool leaders immediately jumped in for damage control.

"Such comments are confusing and unwarranted. I do not know what he actually meant. But the choice of words had been improper. Trinamool Congress is an established political party and we all are loyal party workers. It is true that Mamata Banerjee is the face of the party, and the rest follows her," said Trinamool spokesman Kunal Ghosh.

The party's Howrah district president, Kalyan Ghosh, claimed Chowdhury has said that he made the comments by mistake and he has been cautioned by the party to be careful with his words in the future.

Meanwhile, ridiculing Trinamool in the matter, state BJP President Sukanta Majumdar said that Chowdhury has accepted the fact that Trinamool Congress is a company and its leaders are mere employees.

"Time is ripe for all the employees of 'AITC Private Limited' to accept this bitter fact and live with the same. Truth has only one version. Deal with it," Majumdar tweeted.