Trinamul leadership late on Wednesday removed Sheikh Sufiyan, the deputy chief of East Midnapore zilla parishad, from the party's candidate list after his nomination was greeted with protests, and replaced him with Samsul Islam, the current chief of Daudpur gram panchayat.
Multiple sources in the party said the replacement of Sufiyan, a Trinamul old guard who was the election agent of chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in the 2021 Assembly polls, was significant as it marked the party's decision to not bow down to arm-twisting by local leaders.
Sufiyan, who won as a zilla parishad member in three consecutive rural polls in 2008, 2013 and 2018, has considerable clout in the district.
"Initially he was unsure if he would get a nomination and that's why he and his aides floated a rumour that he would field 100 Independents against official party nominees in Nandigram. The probable repercussions of such a move prompted the state leaders to nominate him," said a source.
"But the moment his name as a nominee was announced, local party workers locked the party office and started demanding the removal of his name from the list of candidates. It prompted the leadership to depute Kunal Ghosh to intervene. Finally, a decision to replace Sufiyan was taken last night," said a Trinamul leader in Nandigram.
The decision by the Trinamul leadership to trim the wings of Sufiyan, a known face of Trinamul's old camp, comes at a time the party's top leaders have vowed to "win all rural body seats in Nandigram" to teach a lesson to BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, who defeated Mamata in the 2021 Assembly polls by a slim margin.
"Nandigram is the top priority of the party in the July 8 panchayat polls. Abhishek Banerjee himself is monitoring the developments there. We don't want to leave a single rural body seat to BJP... That is why the decision was changed at the last minute as there was an understanding that local discontent with Sufiyan may cost us dear," said a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta.
According to a Trinamul leader in East Midnapore, Sufiyan was defeated by Samsul Islam in the internal polls conducted by Abhishek Banerjee during his two-month-long outreach, and it was decided that the latter would be allotted party tickets.
"The apprehension of missing the bus this time prompted Sufiyan to try and arm-twist the leadership by spreading rumours of his plan to field 100 Independents.... Finally, his plan was not successful and that's good news," said a source.
Sufiyan, however, said he would not contest as a rebel and work for the party nominees to ensure their victory.
"I am a soldier of Trinamul and will obey the directive that my party will confer on me. I will work to ensure the victory of our party nominees even after I was denied a party ticket," said Sufiyan.
Trinamul presidents in 10 odd gram panchayats in Tamluk on Thursday resigned from their posts after police arrested Somnath Bera, a zilla parishad functionary, in connection with an old criminal case. Followers of Bera claimed that he was arrested at this juncture as he had fielded Independent candidates against the party's official nominees.