KOLKATA 6 AUG : The demise of Somen Mitra, president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress, has believed to have left a vaccum, not only in the Congress party but also in the politics of the state. It might be true in all likelihood to say that nobody is indispensable but, it is equally true that some individuals are difficult to be replaced, specifically in challenging circumstances.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose paid a remarkable tribute to Mitra’s leadership. Mitra was paid respect to play a pivotal role in promoting the coordination and for the likely alliance of the Congress and the Left in West Bengal for the 2021 state elections. It is an endorsement that reveals the importance of Mitra’s importance at a moment of crisis for liberal-left-secular politics. The closing of ranks by historically bitter rivals against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which in itself is seen as the challenger to the ruling Trinamool Congress, which is a measure of the crisis that the Congress and the Left are faced with now.
Mitra breathed his last at a Kolkata hospital in the early hours of Thursday on July 30. He was 78. According to sources, lack of youth in the party has left the leadership with nothing more than just a handful of worn-out options.
Race for the Baton
Currently, there seems to be three leaders in terms of seniority who could be handed over the baton:
- Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha
- Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha
- Abdul Mannan, the opposition leader in the state assembly
Although, Bhattacharya’s name has cropped up after Gaurav Gogoi, AICC observer for West Bengal, visited Kolkata last week to take a stock of the situation.
Moreover, according to sources in the state Congress, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and senior Congress leaders requested Bhattacharya to take the post although he did not seem quite keen ton holding the position due to his old age.
Chowdhury said, “Somen Mitra’s demise has left a void in Congress. I have personally requested Bhattacharya to take the post as at present he is the most acceptable leader in the Congress party. We are also having talks with the Left for some sort of alliance or to reach an understanding in this difficult situation. I believe Bhattacharya will steer the party in this crucial juncture.”
Sources in the state Congress also divulged that as of now, the party had quite a limited number of options to choose from. Most of the fine leaders known for their best oratory speeches have joined TMC in the past two decades, leaving a deeper void at the heart of the Congress in the state.
Mitra’s passing away comes at a crucial time when the party was pinning hopes on attempting to have a third alternative in the state ahead of next year’s assembly polls.
According to party sources, whosoever takes over as PCC chief also needs to take forward the alliance.
Remembering Somen Mitra
Somen Mitra was a three-time state Congress president.
Though, he had been unable to prevent a split in the party, which resulted in the creation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the decline of the Congress as a political power in Bengal.
It was during Mitra’s second term as the party president in the late 1990s that the Congress had to renounce its position as the main opposition to the TMC.
Born in 1941 in Jessore district of erstwhile East Bengal (now Bangladesh), Mitra began his political career as a student leader in the 1960s.
He became the youngest MLA in the state in 1972 at the age of 31.
Mitra continued to win the Sealdah seat from 1982 to 2006, except in 1977.
He was fondly known as the ‘Chhorda’ (younger brother).
Mitra was viewed as one of the politicians of the 1960s and 70s who played a very crucial role in the fight against Naxalites in Kolkata.
He went on to become president of the Congress’s West Bengal unit for three terms—from 1992 to 1996, 1996 to 1998 and then from September 2018.
His role in securing 82 seats in the 1996 Assembly elections was monumental.
However, as the Congress joined hands with Left Front at the Centre to back the United Front government, it lost credibility as the main opposition to the CPI(M) in West Bengal.
It was then that Mamata Banerjee, who was then the West Bengal Youth Congress president, began emerging as an opposition force.
There was a struggle between Mitra and Banerjee in the Bengal Congress unit.
Further, the relations between them turned sour when Banerjee positioned herself against Mitra for the post of state Congress president.
Mitra managed to win the internal election by 22 votes.
It was learnt that he along with the then Congress national president Sitaram Kesari had been able to corner Banerjee in the party that led her to break away and form the the TMC in 1998.
Mitra left the Congress in 2008 and launched Pragatisheel (Progressive) Indira Congress.
He merged his outfit with the TMC before 2009 Lok Sabha polls and won Diamond Harbour seat on a TMC ticket.
Mitra left the TMC in 2014 following some political differences with Mamata and rejoined the Congress soon after.
He became Congress president again in 2018.
Mitra was one of the chief strategists behind the Left Front-Congress alliance in the 2016 Assembly elections.
He was keen on such an alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but it could not materialise.
Mitra was admitted in Belle Vue Clinic for 17 days due to heart and kidney ailments. Hospital sources said he died following a cardiac arrest. It is confirmed that he had tested negative for Covid-19. He is survived by his wife and son.