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Trinamool crisis deepens as 2 more leaders quit after Suvendu, flurry of resignations likely

Amit Shah's Friday rally in Midnapore will see more resignations from Trinamool Congress as many senior leaders are set to join BJP, a top party leader said.

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Kolkata: A day after two-term Trinamool MP and former minister Suvendu Adhikari quit the Bengal Legislative Assembly, there has been a flurry of resignations in the state with several senior functionaries posted at several high positions in the municipal corporations and other government bodies putting in their papers.

Immediately after Adhikari tendered his resignation to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the party supremo, and officially quit Trinamool Wednesday, MLA Jitendra Tiwari resigned from his position as chairman of Asansol’s board of administrators. He quit the party too Thursday.

Tiwari told ThePrint he had initially resigned only from the board of administrators, but decided to quit as MLA and from the party also after local Trinamool members reached his office and “ransacked” it.

Tiwari sent an email to the party’s national general secretary Subrata Bakshi Thursday evening, announcing his decision.

Colonel Diptangshu Chowdhury (retd), chairman of the South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC), also stepped down from his position. Talking to ThePrint, he said he would quit the party Friday.

Choudhury, who had been with the BJP earlier, has held position of the convener of Trinamool social media wing and also led the chief minister’s grievances cell set up last year after the Lok Sabha election results.

According to sources, at least four to five more MLAs and an MP could quit the party, with Home Minister Amit Shah’s Midnapore rally on Friday likely to see many joining the BJP.

Several senior functionaries at the zila parishads of Burdwan, East Midnapore, Malda, Murshidabad, North 24 Pargana and many councillors of local municipalities have already left their positions.

Trinamool leaders, however, said the party is a “very big family”, and some people leaving it “does not affect us”.


Also read: Suvendu Adhikari quitting a blow to Mamata & bad optics ahead of polls. She needs to introspect


Crisis deepens

Trinamool leaders Abhishek Banerjee, Firhad Hakim and Arup Biswas have tried to speak to many of the dissidents, particularly the MLAs and MPs among them, party sources said.

Even the CM had intervened to stop Jitendra Tiwari, known as politically influential in Asansol area, from leaving and scheduled a meeting on Friday. However, Tiwari resigned before that.

He told ThePrint: “Firhad Hakim, the present urban development minister, would never allow any development in Asansol. I am accountable to them (the people of Asansol). The CM spoke to me, but the issues I raised were not addressed by the minister. So, I do not want to embarrass our chief minister. I am resigning today and will support any force that will stop him from being the minister again.”

Tiwari wrote to Hakim a couple of days ago stating that the latter’s department had blocked around Rs 3,500-crore central funds meant for Asansol’s development.

Col Diptangshu Chowdhury (retd), meanwhile, said he cannot work under the “present lot of leaders”.

“We have always looked up to Didi and did work as assigned. I am not an MLA or an MP. I do not crave for political positions. But I worked as a professional. I made the SBSTC profitable, I worked so hard on troubleshooting after the grievance cell was formed,” he told ThePrint.

Chowdhury, like many others in the party, complained of being asked to toe the line set by “the hired agency”.

He was referring to poll strategist Prashant Kishor and his Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) hired by the Trinamool to formulate its strategy for the 2021 assembly elections.

“…the hired agency started interfering in everything. We never got appreciation, our work was demeaned. Didi has now become Pishi (aunty). We cannot work under these present lot of leaders,” Chowdhury said.

According to a top BJP leader, there would be at least a dozen senior Trinamool leaders, including an MP and four MLAs, and many district and block-level leaders joining the party in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah on 18 December in Midnapore.

Reacting to the resignations, Firhad Hakim said, “All of us had joined Trinamool with a goal and an ideology. Now if some people jump ships, that is their call. Many can change parties like changing clothes, but can they compromise with their ideology ? How can they join the party that killed Gandhiji?”

Another veteran leader and minister Subrata Mukherjee said, “Trinamool Congress is a very big family. If a couple people leave it, we may feel bad for them, but it does not affect our party.”


Also read: ‘A party can’t run like this’ — rumblings within Mamata’s Trinamool get louder ahead of polls


 

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1 COMMENT

  1. The Real fight will be between two “SECULAR PARTIES ” AIMIM AND TMC.

    They are seeking “SECULAR VOTES ” who are in minority but will be majority soon.

    HINDUS believe in education and science and prosperity and don’t believe in conversion and violence and must vote for a party which will not discriminate against them and protect their progressive culture.

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