Akshay Thakur, a former MLA of Cooch Behar south Assembly seat and the district secretary of the All-India Forward Bloc, alleged on Thursday that Trinamul’s Dinhata MLA Udayan Guha, who is a former district secretary and former MLA of the Forward Bloc, had embezzled around Rs 15 lakh from the party’s fund.

Thakur accused Guha — without naming him — of embezzling the amount seven years back when Guha had left the Forward Bloc for Trinamul.

“Some opportunists and traitors had mushroomed in our party. There was a district secretary who left the party and took with him around Rs 15 lakhs. The money was a fund accumulated from the membership fees paid by our party workers,” said Thakur at a news conference at the district Forward Bloc office here.

Thakur also alleged that the former district secretary has been occupying the Forward Bloc party office that was built by Kamal Guha, Udayan’s father and a party stalwart, in Dinhata.
Udayan, responding to the charges of his former party, responded briefly.

“Why should I answer after seven years? They are unnecessarily raking up some baseless issues,” said the Trinamul MLA who won with a record margin in the bypoll.
During the Left regime, Cooch Behar used to be one of the bastions of Forward Bloc. However, the party gradually lost support and Trinamul and BJP emerged as political forces to reckon with.

Thakur admitted there had been an erosion in the Forward Bloc’s support base.

“At present, we have 1,800 members in the district as we do not follow other parties to grant memberships online. But yes, we need to revive our support base,” he said.