A number of Trinamul leaders and functionaries at different rungs in north Bengal either resigned from posts, quit the party or threatened to do so on Thursday following Trinamul stalwart Subhendu Adhikari parting ways months before the crucial state elections.
In Malda, five presidents of “anchal committees” (panchayat level committees) in Bamangola block of the district tendered their resignations, expressing ire over Trinamul's functioning.
Tafiur Rahaman, Manik Mahato, Narayan Mandal, Shyamal Mandal and Sakeb Hansda, who used to head the committees in five panchayats, said they sent their resignation letters to Mausam Benazir Noor, the Malda district Trinamul chief.
“For past few months, some leaders in district and state level have been neglecting those working in the grassroots. No heed is paid to our suggestions and there is always an attempt to impose decisions without consulting us,” said one among the five.
None has cut ties with Trinamul so far. District leaders, when asked on the issue, said it would not affect the organisational base of the party. “We believe they took such a decision as some of their political aspirations were not met with,” said a leader.
In Siliguri, Dipankar Arora, a former secretary of Trinamul’s Darjeeling (plains) district committee, severed ties with the party. “I am a follower of Suvendu Adhikari. As he walked out of Trinamul, I too made the decision,” Arora said.
In Cooch Behar, Nitish Ranjan Sarkar, a district vice-president of Trinamul Youth Congress, said he was an Adhikari loyalist and flayed the party’s election strategist Prashant Kishor.
“It is because of Prashant Kishor and his team that leaders are feeling sidelined. I want to make it clear that I am a loyalist of Suvendu Adhikari. If required, I am ready to quit the party,” said Sarkar.
In the past 24 hours, Sarkar is the second Trinamul leader to fume against the party. On Wednesday, Bhusan Singh, chairperson of the board of administrators of Cooch Behar municipality, alleged that district leaders ignored him at Mamata Banerjee’s rally at Rashmela Ground. “I felt humiliated. If district leaders want, I am ready to quit the party,” Singh had said.
The BJP said this was the start of Trinamul’s erosion.
