Trinamul’s delay in publishing the list of its rural poll candidates and factional feuds that are triggering clashes over the selection of names, have led to defections from the party across north Bengal.
While in most places the disgruntled elected representatives of Mamata Banerjee’s party, along with local leaders, have defected to the BJP, there are also instances where the deserters have joined the Congress in places like Malda and Alipurduar.
On Monday, Sabina Yeasmin, a Trinamul member of Malda zilla parishad, along with some other elected representatives and block-level party leaders, joined Congress in Manikchak of the district. They were accompanied by 500-odd Trinamul supporters.
“It is not possible to continue in a party that has indulged in corruption. Money was sought from certain quarters even against candidature. Thus, we have unconditionally joined Congress,” said Yeasmin.
Mottakin Alam, a former Congress MLA, welcomed them into the party. “Around half of the prominent faces of Trinamul in Manikchak defected to the Congress,” he claimed.
Trinamul leaders, however, sounded unperturbed.
“Their defection will not affect the party’s performance at the rural polls,” said Sabitri Mitra, the Trinamul MLA of Manikchak.
In Kalchini of Alipurduar, four Trinamul leaders of the block, who are also elected representatives, joined the Congress.
They raised questions on the voting conducted by the party during the recent statewide outreach of Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
“Alipurduar is the second district where the voting to selected candidates was conducted during the drive, which is still on. But the information we have with us about the candidates of our (Kalchini) block shows most of them were not selected on the basis of the voting. We have serious doubts about the exercise and so we decided to leave the party,” said Joseph Kuzur, a member of Kalchini panchayat samiti.
In Gazole block of Malda district, around 100 members of the tribal community switched from Trinamul to the BJP on Tuesday.
On Sunday, a group of local Trinamul workers of the minority community joined the BJP in Cooch Behar. They reached the residence of Union minister of state for home affairs Nisith Pramanik, who is also the local MP, at Bhetaguri from Okrabari of Sitai Assembly seat, and joined the BJP.
“Around 300 families of the minority community have joined the BJP. They are fed up with Trinamul’s inner rivalries, which is getting acute ahead of the panchayat elections over the selection of candidates,” said Zinarul Haque, a BJP leader of the area.
After the panchayat elections were announced, Cooch Behar saw a number of violent incidents.
On Saturday, two groups of Trinamul workers clashed in Okrabari, under Dinhata police station, as they differed over the choice of candidates in a local panchayat seat. Two injured party workers had to be hospitalised.
On Tuesday, reports of firing came from Kursmari, a locality under Sahebganj police station of the district. Reportedly, four rounds were fired as separate groups of Trinamul supporters clashed among themselves.
Police are looking into the matter and have detained a person.
In Jalpaiguri, Rina Bara, the Trinamul sabhapati of Malbazar panchayat samiti, filed her nomination as an independent on Monday.
“I had complained against Sushil Prasad, the party’s Malbazar block president, for certain unethical activities of his. The party did remove him from the post. But again, ahead of the polls, the party reinstated him again. This is unacceptable,” said Rina.
The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad has stood in her support. Prasad has denied the charges.
In the Sadar block of the district, a number of elected representatives of theBJP, who had defected to Trinamul, rejoined the BJP on Tuesday.
“Trinamul is unnecessarily delaying in releasing its candidate list for the rural polls,” one of the deserters said.
Candidate death
Ayesha Bibi, 45, a CPM candidate for the rural polls, died in a road accident on Tuesday in Cooch Behar while on her way to a BDO office to file her nomination papers.
The resident of Changerkuthi-Khalishamari was supposed to contest as a candidate in her local panchayat.
She was riding a two-wheeler that rammed into a dump truck engaged in road construction work. Ayesha died on the spot.
A team from the Sitalkuchi police station recovered her body. They also impounded the dump truck but the driver managed to escape. A probe has started.