Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has always been in the news, mostly for her abusive and unparliamentary behaviour and for spreading fake and misleading reports. Recently, she again grabbed the headlines when the cash-for-query scandal surfaced, where she was accused of taking cash and accepting expensive gifts in exchange for asking questions against Gautam Adani in Parliament. This had also led to her expulsion from the Lok Sabha.
However, what has maintained this drama at the top of the charts are her supposed love affairs—sometimes with a lawyer, sometimes with a businessman, sometimes with a politician, and sometimes with someone else. Though the TMC MP’s alleged love affairs have lately become the talk of the town, this is not a recent development. Be it Suhan Mukherjee or Jai Anant Dehdrai, the TMC leader is known for keeping a close watch over the influential people in her life.
Although this part of Mahua Moitra’s life is now public knowledge, not many people might be aware that the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s loyalist Mahua Moitra was formerly very close to the Congress scion Rahul Gandhi. Yes, Mahua Moitra was a member of the Congress Party until 2010 and was responsible for a lot of important work. Then something happened: Mahua Moitra sided with Mamata Banerjee and betrayed Rahul Gandhi.
Mahua Moitra’s close association with Rahul Gandhi
After graduating from Mount Holyoke College South Hadley in Massachusetts, United States, Mahua Moitra worked as an investment banker for JPMorgan Chase in New York City and London until in 2009 she quit her job to enter Indian politics. Subsequently, she joined the Indian Youth Congress, the youth wing of the Congress party where she was one of the trusted hands of Rahul Gandhi in the project “Aam Admi Ka Sipahi”.
He was tasked with overseeing nine blocks in the Nadia district. In an article published by India Today, Mahua Moitra discussed her reasons for quitting her job at JP Morgan and joining the Congress party. She claimed that the ideology of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress had influenced her significantly.
She went on to say that there are only two political parties in the country, and since the Congress Party is in power in the Center, she chose to join them. In West Bengal during the time, the Congress was in opposition.
Mahua Moitra changed her loyalties in 2010
Mahua Moitra has always prioritized her interests over those of others. After joining the Congress party, Moitra quickly realised that the grand old party had very little ground-level presence and could never rise to power in West Bengal. Hence, in 2010, she ditched the Congress to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party in the presence of the party head Mamata Banerjee. It may be recalled that at the time of her joining, Mamata Banerjee merely said, “Our young Mahua Moitra is joining Trinamool Congress.”
Mahua Moitra, however, justified her decision to jump ship from the Congress party and join the TMC, which was gaining prominence in West Bengal politics at the time, by claiming that it was vital to do so for the sake of West Bengal.
At that time Times of India had stated in one of its reports that the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had only brought Moitra into the party because she wanted to capitalize on the popularity of new politicians like Mahua Moitra and to establish relationships with capitalists, which is why she was not even offered any position in the party at first.
Mahua Moitra targets Rahul Gandhi over ‘TMC’s idea in Meghalaya’ barb
Mahua Moitra, who was once impressed by Rahul Gandhi’s ideologies, had last year in February come down hard at the Congress scion over his claim that the TMC was in cahoots with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Meghalaya. She claimed that the Mamata Banerjee-led party was the only national alternative to the saffron party.
Speaking at a public meeting in support of the TMC candidate from North Shillong Elgiva Gwyneth Rynjah, Moitra said, “Had the Congress been able to defeat the BJP, there would be no need for us (to contest the assembly polls). However, since the Congress failed to win the state, we had to step forward to provide an alternative to the people. The TMC is the only alternative (against the BJP).”
“Are we supposed to sit at home and watch the BJP win another general election while the Congress continues to lose state after state?” Moitra added.
Even while campaigning in North Shillong, Mahua Moitra had specifically targeted the Congress party. In that election, the BJP received two seats, while the Congress and Trinamool Congress each received five. It is a different story that neither the Congress nor the Trinamool Congress were able to secure the seat for which Mahua Moitra had campaigned. The seat was won by the VPP, a new party, with the BJP coming in second.
Mahua Moitra’s political journey
- In 2009, Mahua Moitra quit her lucrative position as the vice president of JPMorgan Chase in London to join the Congress party. She was posted in West Bengal.
- Led Congress’s ‘Aam Aadmi Ka Sipahi’ program in the Nadia district in West Bengal.
- She moved to the All India Trinamool Congress in 2010.
- TMC won the state elections in West Bengal in 2011.
- Mahua Moitra became the party spokesperson during Mamata’s first government.
- Contested and won the West Bengal assembly elections in 2016 from Nadia district’s Karimpur constituency.
- Three years later in 2019, Mahua Moitra became an MP after she won the Lok Sabha elections from Krishnagar, West Bengal.
- In 2023, the Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha, weeks after Parliament’s Ethics Committee recommended her expulsion over the cash-for-query scandal.
Mahua betrayed everyone for her benefit
Mahua Moitra had no godfather when she entered politics. Congress backed her up and gave her a political identity. Despite this, she ditched the Congress to join Mamata Banerjee, since she had emerged as the biggest challenger to Bengal’s incumbent communist government at that time and continued to climb the political ladder.
Mahua is in problems these days because of her ‘jilted-ex’ advocate Jai Anant Dehdrai. Advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai had written a letter to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP Nishikant Dubey. In this letter, Dehadrai made some startling revelations about TMC MP Mahua Moitra, claiming that she was paid to ask questions in Lok Sabha targetting the Adani Group. Based on this letter, the BJP MP sent a formal complaint to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking an inquiry against Moitra and urging the Speaker for her immediate suspension.
In what turned out to be a huge blow to the TMC MP, Darshan Hiranandani, the CEO of Hiranandani Group, turned approver in the ‘cash for query’ scandal (also called ‘MahuaGate’), issued a statement on 19th October, wherein the billionaire businessman accepted paying for most of the questions asked by Mahua Moitra in the Lok Sabha in the form of cash and gifts. He also acknowledged that the TMC MP provided him with her Parliamentary login credentials which he used to ask questions to the central government on her behalf.
Hiranandani also said that Mahua Moitra was getting unverified information to target Gautam Adani from various people, including journalist Sucheta Dalal and lawyers Shardul Shroff and Pallavi Shroff.
Later, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha, weeks after Parliament’s Ethics Committee recommended her expulsion over the cash-for-query scandal.
Whether or not her party gives Mahua Moitra a ticket to the Lok Sabha elections this year, she has shown her leadership skills throughout the course of her 15-year political career. That is why, when it was in her best interests, she supported Rahul Gandhi, and when things did not go her way, she swiftly sided with Abhishek Banerjee to gain Mamata Banerjee’s trust. And, being the shrewd opportunist that she is, she expertly used billionaire businessman Darshan Hiranandani and went after Gautam Adani for financial gain. Here, all one can say is, Mahua Moitra, you are a genius!