India, Oct. 29 -- In 2011, Ratan Tata handpicked Cyrus Mistry as his successor at group holding company Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd. Five years later, in October, Tata was instrumental in ousting Mistry.

Cut to this October, there is another Mistry at the receiving end of a fresh, equally bitter, boardroom battle. Mehli Mistry-a cousin of the late Cyrus Mistry-has been voted out of Tata Trusts, which have a controlling stake in Tata Sons. And to think that it was Mehli Mistry who backed Ratan Tata's half-brother Noel Tata as chairman of Tata Trusts on 11 October 2024, less than 48 hours after the group patriarch died.

The characters of a possible prolonged Tata vs Mistry 2.0 battle may be different, but the circumstances are eerily similar. The ...