Trinamul Congress functionaries in north Bengal and some parts of the state’s south have been on an overdrive to re-induct into the party people who joined the BJP, Congress and the CPM.
Many leaders have been into a kind of competition for the past one month, trying to outshine each other by getting on board hundreds who had deserted Trinamul or are supporters of other parties.
Ministers, former representatives of civic bodies, leaders of Trinamul’s youth front and trade unions are at the forefront of the induction spree. All of them are busy finding people at towns and villages and encouraging them to join Trinamul.
The efforts put up by these leaders, party insiders said, have been noticed after July 21, the day when party supremo Mamata Banerjee had asked deserters to return to Trinamul from the BJP, Left and the Congress.
“Whether it is in Malda or Cooch Behar, our party supremo’s call seems to have triggered a competition among leaders. Every day, someone or the other is joining Trinamul in the presence of prominent district leaders at towns and villages. This is indeed good news for the party, particularly in north Bengal, where we were defeated by the BJP in seven of eight Lok Sabha seats,” said a senior Trinamul leader in Siliguri.
In the past fortnight or so, north Bengal residents have witnessed a slew of activities by Trinamul.
Hundreds of people were paraded at venues and they shouted slogans for Mamata Banerjee and her party while accepting Trinamul flags from prominent leaders.
While addressing Trinamul workers virtually from Calcutta on July 21, the chief minister had also emphasised the need to strengthen the party’s support base across the state.
A number of changes were made in the party’s hierarchy soon with constitution of new committees and appointment of fresh faces as office-bearers.
BJP supporters join Trinamul at Dhamakhali in North 24-Parganas on Tuesday. Pashupati Das
Since then, the leaders have been putting up their best efforts to get more and more people on board. For example, in Malda, Amlan Bhaduri, a district coordinator of Trinamul, was instrumental in inducting around 100 Congress workers at Kaliachak.
Dulal Sarkar, another coordinator, was not far behind. Within 72 hours of Bhaduri’s programme, he arranged for the joining of 50 families, who were with the BJP at Muchia of Old Malda.
On Monday, Partha Pratim Roy, the newly-appointed chief of Trinamul’s Cooch Behar district committee, brought in 500-odd BJP workers and leaders to the ruling party.
Within 12 hours, Abhijit Dey Bhowmik, the district president of Trinamul Youth Congress, held a meeting in Cooch Behar on Tuesday and claimed that a youth leader of the BJP and 100 others had joined Mamata’s party.
North Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh went to a village in Natabari — his Assembly constituency — on Tuesday and handed over Trinamul flags to 59 families. They had been with the BJP, he claimed.
Asked if there was a competition among Trinamul leaders to increase the number of members, Ghosh said: “There is no competition. Each of us is trying to strengthen our base and using our own connections to induct more people into the party. There are many who had left us but are returning now, answering Didi’s call.”
Around 1,000 BJP supporters and 200-odd CPM members in at least five panchayats under Sandeshkhali 2 block of North 24-Parganas district joined Trinamul on Tuesday. Local Trinamul MLA Sukumar Mahato handed over the party flags to them.
In north Bengal, it is only Biplab Mitra and his brother Prashanta of South Dinajpur who can be considered as prominent faces whom Trinamul could get back on board from the BJP.
