The Trinamul Congress hit the streets in Nadia on Saturday with an eye on building a movement around the expulsion of Krishnanagar MP Mohua Moitra from the Lok Sabha.

While the party has planned to take up the issue across the state in the coming days, the movement was launched on Saturday from Krishnanagar, Moitra’s parliamentary constituency in Nadia.

Several rallies were organised in Krishnanagar with Trinamul leaders burying their differences to protest for Moitra, expelled in connection with the cash-for-query controversy.

“It is not just an issue related to the people of Krishnanagar who elected Mahua Moitra. Rather, it is an issue against the injustice and arbitrary rule of the BJP,” said Trinamul’s Chapra MLA Rukbanur Rahaman.

The Chapra Assembly segment is a party of Moitra’s Lok Sabha constituency and had provided her a lead of about 49,000 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. On Saturday, around 3,000 party supporters walked from Shrinagar to Murgihata to condemn her expulsion.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Rahaman said: “With the expulsion of Moitra, the BJP government has blatantly ignored the people’s verdict that sent her to the Lok Sabha. It is sheer cheating with public opinion, which was against the BJP. We will take this issue to the people and the movement will not remain confined to Krishnanagar.”

Acknowledging that the movement for Moitra was part of a larger strategy of the party, a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta said: “It is a big issue the BJP has handed us. Detailed plans to initiate the movement in all the districts will be shared soon.”

“A battle has begun today. All of us swear to get Mahuadi back in Parliament. We
have vowed to ensure her a lead with a bigger margin than the last Lok Sabha
poll,” Sukdeb Brahma, Trinamul’s Chapra block president, said.