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Jayanta Bhattacharya, a former spokesman of the Trinamul Congress and once a close confidante of Banerjee said wrong choice of candidates and organisational shortcomings had spelt doom for the party in the May 10 polls.
"Banerjee had a golden chance to dislodge the Left Front government and usher in the first non-Left regime in 24 years. But she frittered it away due to her whimsical ways," he said.
Criticising the media for projecting a larger than life image of Banerjee, he said, "The fourth estate has made Mamata what she is today."
Echoing the views of state Congress leaders, Bhattacharya said personal charisma could never win elections in the absence of a well-knit organisation and reiterated that the Trinamul Congress had lost at least 24 seats in the assembly polls due to bickering within the party.
Castigating Banerjee for inducting leaders like Subrato Mukherjee and Saugata Roy into the party, Bhattacharya said, "Both of them had launched vicious personal attacks against her in the past. But now, while one is the Calcutta Mayor, the other is a party legislator."
"Earlier, she was also blatantly opposed to them, but did a volte face when they pledged loyalty to her. Her philosophy seems to be stay with me and you are as pure as the Ganges, otherwise you are not," he said.
Bhattacharya suggested that Banerjee 'mend her ways' to strengthen the party from within in order to put up a formidable opposition against an organised party like the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which had a very strong line of collective leadership.
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