The Mamata-Abhishek protégé who broke ranks: The many turns in Saayoni Ghosh’s career

Considered one of the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) rising stars, Saayoni Ghosh’s decision to join the bloc of rebel MPs has been one of the more surprising defections for many inside the Mamata Banerjee-led party, given her known proximity to the former Chief Minister and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

“We never thought Saayoni would join the rebel bloc because Abhishek Banerjee brought her into politics and Mamata Banerjee always preferred her and made her a leader even before she proved her credibility. This is also a lesson for Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee because they always kept faith in film artists rather than the party’s full-time workers and leaders,” said a senior TMC leader close to the former CM.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra said she was left “shocked” at Ghosh’s exit. “Saayoni is like my child, like my sister. If anybody else left, I would feel no pain. (But) I look at her and she’s old enough to be my daughter. I really loved her like that. And I believe she has an excellent future. She has come from nothing, is a very hard worker, and is extremely talented… Maybe it’s a combination of fear and other things. She has a father. I don’t know what it is. Because I can vouch that she’s not a disloyal, profiteering person. She’s not interested in money. She leads a fairly simple life and works all the time. Look at what the party has given her in only five years… When people like that do that (think of jumping ship), it’s very, very upsetting. Everyone has their own destiny. But still my advice to her would be, you know, overcome fear, conquer fear. There is life ahead,” Moitra told The Indian Express in a recent interview.

As the crisis in the TMC deepened, Ghosh travelled to New Delhi over the weekend amid intense speculation about her future, saying she would speak “when the time is right”. On Sunday, the rebel MPs, including Ghosh, met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, announcing their merger with a little-known regional outfit and seeking recognition as a separate group in Parliament.

Realising that Saayoni had changed sides, Mamata Banerjee initiated an organisational reshuffle and removed her as Trinamool Youth Congress president, replacing her with Arnab Banerjee.

Political journey

In 2021, Ghosh’s entry into active politics proved to be a turning point for the TMC, which at the time was seeing prominent leaders exit the party to join the BJP. Before Ghosh officially joined the TMC ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls, she had been openly critical of the BJP and was known to be close to the Left in Bengal.

That year, she made her electoral debut from the Asansol South Assembly constituency against BJP’s Agnimitra Paul. Though Ghosh lost to Paul by under 4,500 votes, her energetic campaigning caught the eye of the TMC leadership.

Shortly after the TMC returned to power in the 2021 Assembly polls, the party leadership entrusted Ghosh with greater responsibility, appointing her as Abhishek Banerjee’s replacement as the president of the Trinamool Youth Congress. Ghosh, hardly a reticent politician, chose to voice her opinions loudly, harnessing social media to present her takes on national issues.

In November 2021, while campaigning for the TMC in Tripura’s civic body elections, Ghosh was arrested by the police on charges of promoting enmity between people, attempt to murder, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. An FIR was also registered against her for allegedly disturbing a rally of then CM Biplab Kumar Deb.

In June 2023, Ghosh was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its probe into the alleged irregularities in the school jobs scam. Sources in the ED had said that Ghosh’s name surfaced multiple times during interrogation of those arrested in connection with its probe, in which former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee had been arrested.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Ghosh was fielded from the high-profile Jadavpur constituency of Kolkata, the very seat that had launched TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee onto the national stage in 1984. Ghosh recorded a resounding victory against the BJP candidate, winning by a margin of nearly 2.6 lakh votes to become a first-time MP.

Her performative campaigning style during the campaign for the recent West Bengal Assembly elections also made her stand out. At one of her rallies, Ghosh quoted from a devotional poem, saying “Mere dil mein hai Kaaba, aur mere aankhon mein Madina (Kaaba is in my heart, Madina in my eyes),” before rendering parts of the Hanuman Chalisa as well as a Sikh prayer to highlight her party’s secular principles and focus on communal harmony in a largely polarised electoral landscape.

At another rally, Ghosh recited lines by Bengali poet Sukanta Bhattacharya, referring to the BJP as “the power that forgets people”. In another instance, she broke into an almost theatrical chant, modulating her voice to mimic a stage performance — a technique that has emerged as her campaign’s signature.

Ghosh was born in Kolkata in 1993 and by 2010, she had already begun her acting career, starring in the television film Icche Dana and making her debut in Notobor Notout. She went on to appear in several major Bengali films such as Rajkahini (2015), Byomkesh O Chiriyakhana (2016) and Astey Ladies (2019).

As per Ghosh’s 2024 election affidavit, she holds assets worth Rs 91.9 lakh and has liabilities of Rs 59.9 lakh.