Trinamul Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday addressed the elephant in the room for Bengal’s ruling party, infighting.
In the first two weeks of January 2025, a senior Trinamul leader in Malda and another party worker in the same district were shot dead, while several others were injured.
“These issues are natural when a party grows. When the CPM was in power, was there no infighting? Is there no infighting in the BJP?” Abhishek asked during a media interaction in South 24-Parganas' Falta, where he has been running health camps in areas under his Lok Sabha constituency.
“If anyone believes they have become too powerful or above the party, the disciplinary committee will take action. Action has been taken in the past and will continue to be taken in the future.”
On January 2, Dulal Sarkar, Trinamul’s vice-president in Malda, was chased and gunned down by assailants in Englishbazar while on his way to his plywood factory. On Wednesday, 12 days after Sarkar’s murder, bike-borne assailants opened fire during a road inauguration ceremony, killing one and injuring the party’s area president, Bakul Sheikh, and others.
Sarkar’s wife, Chaitali, a councillor in the Englishbazar Municipality, has stated that the conspiracy to kill her husband was not the work of an opposition party, but rather a faction within the ruling Trinamul.
“The main people behind the murders have not yet been arrested. Once they are behind bars, Malda will stop bleeding,” she said on Tuesday following the attack on Sheikh.
She also said that she could provide the names of those behind the attacks to chief minister Mamata Banerjee if granted an audience.
On the day of Sarkar’s murder, Mamata had blamed the district authorities, accusing them of reducing Sarkar’s security detail, a decision of which she claimed to be unaware.
In the attempt on Sheikh’s life, his family has named Zakir Sheikh, who had switched from the Congress to the Trinamul in October last year.
The Malda police have arrested Trinamul’s Narendranath Tiwari in connection with Sarkar’s murder, though those responsible for the attack on Sheikh remain at large. Tiwari has been expelled from the party.
Last year, three attempts were made on the life of Trinamul councillor and Kolkata Municipal Corporation borough chairman Sushanta Ghosh.
Without directly criticising the state administration – of which Mamata also holds the home (police) portfolio – Abhishek stated that administrative action plays a key role in curbing such incidents.
“A lot depends on the actions taken by the district and the police administration after any such incident. In Malda, the accused have been arrested (in Sarkar’s murder). In the RG Kar case too, Kolkata Police arrested the prime accused, Sanjay Roy, within 24 hours while the CBI has made no progress in its investigation over the past five months,” Abhishek said.
Abhishek iterated that Trinamul maintained a zero-tolerance policy for any leader involved in unlawful activities.
“If any Trinamul leader thinks they will dominate an area by force, they will regret it. The CPM made the same mistake when it was in power. The BJP too tried to do the same in one district [referring to East Midnapore, the constituency of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari]. The doors of Trinamul will be permanently shut to them in the future,” he said.
“No one is above party discipline, whether they are a booth-level worker or me.”
