The Trinamul Congress has decided to return to the CPM all offices it captured from the Left party in the Birbhum district in a bid to check the growth of the BJP.
The CPM on Monday got back a one-story building which used to function as its branch committee office at Rajatpur village under Raipur-Supur gram panchayat till Trinamul grabbed it in 2017.
The CPM alleged that Trinamul had seized its one dozen offices in areas like Suri, Parui and Illambazar in Birbhum since 2011 when Mamata Banerjee had become the chief minister.
Trinamul leaders said they had decided to relinquish the control of the offices and restore them to the CPM in order to staunch the exodus of Left party cadres to the BJP.
“Even though we retained Bolpur and Birbhum Lok Sabha seats in the district, the BJP secured substantial votes in both the constituencies. We have seen that a large number of CPM workers and supporters are flocking to the BJP. We need to stop it. So, we have directed the return of all CPM offices we captured,” a senior Trinamul leader in Birbhum said.
After capturing the CPM office at Rajatpur near Bolpur, Trinamul’s symbol had been painted on the wall. The building was subsequently named “Rajatpur Trinamul Congress Karjyaloy (office)”.
“Local Trinamul leader Siraj Mollah met me on Monday night and handed me the office’s key. He said we would be able to function from the office like before. It was really a surprise for us,” said Ganesh Chandra Roy, the local CPM branch committee secretary.
Nikhil Basak, the Trinamul chief of the Raipur-Supur gram panchayat, said the office had been given back to the CPM at the instruction of the ruling party’s leadership.
The building with Trinamul’s writings and the symbol before Picture by Amarnath Dutta
On Tuesday, Trinamul workers whitewashed the wall of the office to remove the writings and the symbol.
Gautam Ghosh, a CPM state committee member from Bolpur, said the party office would be painted in a day or two. “Actually, Trinamul has understood that the politics of capturing party offices doesn’t work for a long time. We hope they will return all our captured offices very soon,” said Ghosh.
Abhijit Sinha, a district vice-president of Trinamul, said: “It is not proper to capture the offices of another political party and we don’t support it. So, it is good news that our leaders returned a CPM office. If there are more such instances, the same process will be followed.”
The BJP, however, said Trinamul was scared of the rise of the saffron outfit in Birbhum.
“The return of the CPM office at Rajatpur shows that
Trinamul wants an understanding with the CPM to combat the rise of the BJP. It is ridiculous that Trinamul is returning the office it captured from the CPM. Interestingly, Trinamul leaders don’t extend such political courtesy to us. People will react to such things through their votes in the 2021 Assembly polls,” said Shyamapada Mondal, the Birbhum district president of the BJP.
