Four Trinamul MLAs of Murshidabad have fielded over 300 Independents against the party's official nominees for the July 8 rural polls in a decision that spells trouble in the ruling party in a district where it bagged 20 out of 22 seats in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Fielding Independent candidates against the party's official nominees is not new to Bengal rural polls. However, the Murshidabad story this time is different as Trinamul MLAs Humayun Kabir, Rabiul Islam Chowdhury, Saina Mamtaz and Abdur Rajjak, from Bharatpur, Rejinagar, Nawda and Janagi, respectively, didn't hide what they did, going to the extent of holding a news meet to justify their decision to field Independents.
"The party picked only 32 nominees from my list of candidates out of 117 gram panchayat seats in Bharatpur I block. In Bharatpur II block, only 15 seats were allotted to my followers out of 161 gram panchayat seats. In both cases, most seats were given to followers of block presidents. Our followers have already filed nomination papers in most of the seats and will contest as Independents if the party does not provide give them its symbol," said Kabir.
The three other Trinamul MLAs echoed Kabir, saying they would back their followers contesting as Independents.
This news meet is seen as a dare to Trinamul general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had repeatedly warned party workers and leaders not to contest as Independents in the rural polls. He had also warned those contesting against official nominees that they would not be taken back in Trinamul even if they won.
Asking about Abhishek's diktat, the MLAs said they fielded their candidates to protest against the "injustice" of the party leadership.
"We are victims of injustice. In other places, lists of local MLAs are given priority. In Kandi, 90 per cent of the followers of the local MLA were given party tickets. In our case, it is completely different. Our followers will participate as Independents and the poll result will show the reality" said Kabir, the Bharatpur MLA.
MLA Chowdhury claimed that this policy of the Trinamul leadership would help the Congress, which is the main opposition in Murshidabad.
“Those who have been denied party tickets will turn hostile and join the Congress. It will have an impact on our party,” he said.
Shaoni Singha Roy, the Trinamul district president in Murshidabad, admitted that the four MLAs were upset as the views of the respective block presidents were given more weightage by the party leadership.
“The conflict could not be resolved even after holding at least 10 meetings... The office of Abhishek Banerjee is aware of the issue,” she said.
Jayanta Das, Congress’ district general secretary, said that he would await the Trinamul leadership’s action against the MLAs.
Apart from Murshidabad, hundreds of disgruntled Trinamul workers and leaders, who were denied party tickets, turned up at different government offices in several central Bengal districts on Thursday, the last day of filing nomination, to file their papers.
In Jhargram, at least six zilla parishad functionaries, including the sabhadhipati of the current body, on Thursday filed their nomination as Independents.
“Our senior party leaders denied us tickets even by violating the recommendation of Abhishek Banerjee. In our districts, all 19 candidates are new and no one from the old body was given a ticket. Is it possible that no one worked in the past five years of tenure?” asked Madhabi Biswas, the sabhadhipati of Jhargram zilla parishad.
