KOLKATA 15 DEC: The rebellion within the Trinamool Congress seems to be a battle between Kolkata TMC and district TMC . This was evident from the list of rebel leaders who have come from the districts and who are vocal against the functioning of the Kolkata party leadership.
Few leaders who are vocal includes Suvendu Adhikari from East Midnapore , Rajib Banerjee from Howrah, Jitendra Tiwari MLA from Asansol, Jatu Lahiri from Shibpur ,Ananta Deb Adhikari from Coochbehar.
In fact, Adhikari vouched for this on Tuesday.
“The rural Bengal will win whereas the urban Bengal will lose,” said Adhikary at a rally in East Midnapore. Also, this he said with an obvious reference to the TMC’s functioning at the district-level and the leadership in the city.
On Monday, Asansol MLA, Jitendra Tiwari accused TMC of not letting the city receive funds to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore from the Center. Precisely, under the smart city project because of political reasons. According to Tiwari, this did cause embarrassment to the ruling TMC in the district. Tiwari also believes that the Kolkata TMC leaders are not allowing them to take up new projects. In particular, causing embarrassment for the party as people are questioning him what prompted Asansol not to receive funds for the smart city project. And he has written a letter to the Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim in this regard. Moreover, this sudden development did stoke speculations that Tiwari, who is also the local legislator and a TMC heavyweight, may leave the party in the run-up to the crucial assembly polls due in about five months. In fact, the party did call Tiwari for an internal meeting on Tuesday evening that he has confirmed to attend.
However, on Tuesday, Tiwari said that Banerjee has decided to speak with him on December 18 and she will address his issues.
Recently, another TMC leader, Ananta Deb Adhikary also expressed displeasure because they had to toe the line of an outsider team member PK set by the professional management agencies. The leader claimed that he has written a letter to the chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressing his concern.
According to Adhikari, the team Prashant Kishor does not have any idea of the grass-root level issues and they could not feel the pulse of the people. Also, he believes that the strategising from sitting in Kolkata can do more harm than good.
Similarly, it is not only Adhikari but various other leaders who have expressed their dissatisfaction. They criticise the appointment of the political strategist by TMC. Also, how Abhishek Banerjee is trying to give instructions to the party leaders and has been given too much importance by the party.
According to the rebel leaders, they have joined the party only because they have seen Mamata Banerjee’s struggle. So, they are determined to only listen to Banerjee’s diktat than anyone else.
Adhikari raged the insider-outsider debate on Tuesday
Referring to the TMC leadership-triggered insider-outsider debate to counter the BJP, in the next assembly polls, Adhikari said, Bengal is very much an integral part of India. Also, Adhikari voiced his opinion on the same as he said, “people coming from other states can’t be treated as outsiders”.
Notably, the ruling party in West Bengal has often criticised the BJP. Mainly, for sending its leaders from other states to gear up for the Assembly polls.
“For us, first we are Indians and then a Bengali. Satish Chandra Samanta was a stalwart parliamentarian from Midnapore. Even the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru used to respect him a lot. Neither Satish Chandra Samanta ever called Nehru an outsider nor did Nehru ever brand him as a non-Hindi speaking MP. There was mutual respect,” he added echoing the views of the saffron party on the insider-outsider debate.
It is worth mentioning that Samanta had quit Bengal Engineering College as a student to participate in the freedom struggle. His leadership qualities came to the forefront during the formation of a parallel government named Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (Tamrlipta National Government) in Tamluk during the Quit India Movement. After Independence, Samanta was a Member of Parliament for over three decades.
Further, lashing at the TMC leadership, Adhikari said, “Why should there be a ‘by the party, for the party, of the party’ rule in Bengal? This is democracy. We need to restore the rules as per the Indian Constitution, which states ‘by the people, of the people and for the people’… I am not greedy for posts. All my life, I have worked for the masses.”
In fact, an influential leader with a mass base, Adhikari said that those trying to malign him would receive a befitting reply in the 2021 Assembly polls.