Mahua Moitra: Outspoken TMC MP who has a penchant for controversies

The TMC MP from Bengal was first accused by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, who alleged that Moitra purportedly asked questions in Parliament in exchange for gifts and cash from the Hiranandani group, in an attempt to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi and link the BJP with the Adani group.

According to Dubey, out of the 61 questions she asked in Parliament, 50 were focused on the Adani Group, the business conglomerate which the TMC MP has often accused of malpractices, especially after the short-seller Hindenburg Research's critical report.

Dubey, who is facing a privileges panel complaint for derogatory remarks made by him against a fellow MP in the recent Special Session of Parliament, claimed he had “irrefutable” evidence provided by Jai Dehadrai, a Supreme Court lawyer, who happens to be Moitra’s "jilted lover" and is embroiled in a custody battle with her over their pet Rottweiler – Henry.

Dubey’s complaint against Moitra to Speaker Om Birla has been referred to the Parliament's Ethics Committee, which is all set to hear the matter on October 26.

However, two recent developments in the cash-for-query case have clearly gone against the TMC MP.

Conflict of interest

One is that her senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who was appearing for the Trinamool leader in a defamation case filed by her, had to dramatically withdraw from a defamation case she had filed, over a “conflict of interest”.

The 'conflict of interest' was exposed by none other than Dehadrai, who told the Delhi high court that Sankaranarayanan had approached him to drop the CBI complaint against Moitra and in exchange for withdrawing the complaint, he could get custody of the dog Henry. A revelation that forced the lawyer to withdraw from the case for playing the role of a mediator. The court has now scheduled the next hearing for October 31.

Hiranandani's affidavit

Secondly, on Thursday (October 19), businessman Darshan Hiranandani, the CEO of the real-estate conglomerate Hiranandani Group, has corroborated Dubey's claims in a signed affidavit before the Ethics Committee of Parliament, claiming that Moitra had shared her Parliamentary login ID and password so that he could "post questions on her behalf".

He said in the affidavit that Mahua Moitra thought the only way to attack PM Modi was by attacking Gautam Adani, and so she "expected support". For this, she shared her Parliament login ID so he could frame the questions, Hiranandani said.

Earlier, the Hiranandani group had denied the allegations when the row broke out last week and said it was “not involved in the business of politics”.

Moitra denies allegations

Meanwhile, Moitra, who is putting up a brave front, has posted on X that she welcomes answering questions to CBI & Ethics Committee (which has the absolute majority of BJP members) if & when they call her. “I have neither time nor interest to feed an Adani-directed media circus trial or answer BJP trolls. I am enjoying Durga Puja in Nadia,” she wrote. However, she slammed the Parliament Ethics committee on X for sharing Hiranandani's affidavit with the media.

Incidentally, Moitra has denied all the allegations against her and has claimed that Dehardrai, who she accuses of having an “acrimonious personal history”, is trying to get back at her.

PTI has reported, quoting TMC sources, that Moitra has filed several police complaints against Dehadrai for alleged criminal trespass, theft, vulgar messages and abuse.. Dubey, also took a dig at Moitra on their ongoing battle in a post on X, saying: “Had heard about the war of Mahabharata for Draupadi, but experiencing a political earthquake over (a dog) is happening in the country for the first time.”

Moitra’s political career

The 49-year-old politician is, however, no stranger to public drama and scandal.

Moitra first shot to fame in 2019 through a spirited speech that she made in Parliament, listing out the “seven early signs of fascism”. Her speech indirectly accusing the BJP-led government of bringing fascism to Indian shores went viral. Undaunted by the Treasury Benches' attempts to shout her down during her speech, she had soldiered on and won the grudging approval of members in the Opposition benches and her own party members at that time.

Since then, Moitra is a prominent speaker among the Opposition ranks. Moitra, has often taken on the BJP-led Centre in Parliament on a slew of issues such as the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens to demanding the government to share details of the expenses made from the PM Cares Fund with the Parliament.

Controversy queen

She has been involved in several controversies. In February this year, she snapped at Lok Sabha’s presiding officer Rama Devi, for interrupting her speech. The Speaker had urged her to “speak with love” and “not get so angry.”

Even though Moitra initially took the Speaker’s advice in her stride, she later ticked off Devi on X saying she was not the moral science teacher of the Lok Sabha.

In 2020, the Parliamentarian riled up the media community after a video of her calling a reporter “do paisa worth” went viral. While the Kolkata Press Club condemned the behaviour, asking Moitra to tender an apology, the TMC distanced itself from her comments. But an unrepentant Moitra worsened the matter by tweeting, “I apologise for the mean, hurtful, accurate things I said…”

Moitra’s party TMC, which largely remains a mute spectator, were however hard pressed to support her in mid-2022, when she made a remark about Goddess Kali saying she sees her as a “meat eating, alcohol accepting goddess". Multiple FIRs and complaints were filed against her in the backdrop of the controversy over Canadian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai's documentary Kaali. Not just BJP and Hindu groups, even TMC leaders too turned against her.

A Kali worshipper

Fiercely non-apologetic, Moitra had said at that time: "Bring it on BJP. I am a Kali worshipper, I am not afraid of anything. Not your ignoramuses." At the height of the National Register of Citizens issue, she said sarcastically that in "a country where ministers cannot produce degrees to show they graduated from college, you expect dispossessed poor people to show papers to show that they belong to this country".

Further, she said: "There is an ‘obsession with national security and identification of enemies’ and everyone is in fear of ‘some nameless, shameless kaala bhoot’.

According to reports, some of her Parliamentarian colleagues call her "immature" and "impulsive". But, the fact is that a highly vocal Moitra has been useful for the TMC to get national attention. However, she has been known to call a fellow parliamentarian a scoundrel sending even Opposition members into a shock, and has shown the middle finger to a new anchor on national television while she was on air.

But she also strongly stood by the women wrestlers in their fight against WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Investment banker to politician

Born to a tea planters family in Assam, Moitra was a bright student who secured a scholarship to study mathematics and economics at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. After which, she held a high-paying job in American multinational investment bank JP Morgan in London and New York.

However, a calling to do more in life and make a “difference” rather than just end up heading a top investment bank, led her to join politics in 2009. Moitra joined the Congress first, which she left because of poor organisational presence at the grassroots.

In 2010, she switched to the Trinamool Congress and in the 2016 polls, she won the Assembly elections from the Karimpur constituency in Nadia district.

After a three-year stint as MLA of the largely rural Karimpur constituency bordering Bangladesh, Moitra was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 from Krishnanagar. Shortly after, she became the party’s Nadia district president signalling party chief Mamata Banerjee’s confidence in Moitra. But, reports say that her autocratic style of functioning and complaints from local leaders and her outspokenness on sensitive issues made her unpopular with party insiders.

There was also the time in December 2021, Mamata Banerjee ticked her off during an administrative review meeting in Nadia district over disagreements with her colleagues about ticket distribution in the Krishnanagar constituency (which comes under the district).

In 2021, Moitra was made the Goa in-charge of TMC. The party’s poor performance in the Assembly polls reflected poorly on her leadership role and her ability to consolidate voters.

Moitra has weathered all these challenges until now. But, this time, if the MP is found guilty in the cash-for-query row, she is likely to be expelled, said reports.