Kolkata : Politics after all is a superfine version of chess, wherein any given narrative can be completely swayed by factors like who and how the wiser mortal crushed the mediocre. Taking a leaf out of it, although a little late, the Trinamool Congress(TMC) is now trying to bring back the disgruntled horses whom it had shunned before the Lok Sabha elections. The plan was built only after the BJP blew away its opponents in the polls, and unprecedentedly won 18 seats in West Bengal .
The TMC, however, won by a thin majority in West Bengal and is now focusing more on reducing differences of opinion within the party.
Senior TMC leaders on Monday said Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim called Sovan Chatterjee and requested him to meet with the senior TMC supremo Miss Mamata Banerjee. Chatterjee was forced to resign as the Mayor of Kolkata by Banerjee in November 2018.
Also, the party’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal on Monday met Sheikh Kajal and tried to assuage him. Feud within the TMC had also led to the death of three party workers in Nanoor.
Sheikh Kajal is the brother of Trinamool Congress MLA of Ketugram Sheikh Shahnawaz.
Hakim said, “I have spoken to Chatterjee over phone and requested him to meet the party supremo Mamata Banerjee and work for the party. I think we have been successful in eliminating Left Front from Bengal and now our challenge is to fight together in this trying times.”
Despite TMC winning the two Lok Sabha seats in Bolpur and Birbhum, the BJP is not lagging behind. Ramprasad Das of the saffron party from Bolpur secured bagged 5,92,769 votes while TMC’s Asit Mal secured 6,99,171 votes.In Birbhum, Dudh Kumar Mondal of BJP secured 5,65,153 votes while Shatabdi Roy of TMC secured 6,54,077 votes.
A senior Trinamool Congress leader said that the party is also trying to bring senior leaders like Mihir Goswami in Coochbehar to unite the workers and tackle infighting within the party. In Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has already won all the Lok Sabha seats in North Bengal. Significantly, TMC councillors of both Halisahar municipality and 16 councillors of Kanchrapara municipality of North 24 Parganas went to New Delhi on Monday along with Subrangshu Roy who was suspended from Trinamool Congress three days back . Roy is the son of BJP leader Mukul Roy . He also joined the BJP on Saturday. Sources in the BJP also said that all 29 councillors are scheduled to join the saffron party.
Dilip Ghosh, West Bengal BJP president, said: ”We have received calls from various Trinamool Congress leaders and came to know that they are eager to join the BJP. We will check their backgrounds before inducting them in our party. “