Siliguri(West Bengal): The politics in Bengal’s Hills is getting murkier yet again with the State Election Commission announcing the date of elections to 108 civic bodies across West Benga. Infighting and confusion within the ruling Trinamool Congress has grown manifold over the choice of candidates. The trouble which is taking the plains by storm has also reached the Hills, where Trinamool Congress has a declared alliance with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).
Several rounds of the meeting between the ruling party and the Hills party has been taking place for the past couple of days and following the hectic parleys, the Trinamool Congress came up with its first list of candidates for the Darjeeling Municipality. Trinamool Congress has fielded candidates from ten wards and has left 22 wards free for the GJM to nominate their own candidates. Soon after the Trinamool list was published, GJM also came up with their own list wherein they named candidates for nine wards. Interestingly, Trinamool Congress has fielded candidates in Ward numbers 2, 5, 8, 13, 14, 18, 20, 25, 31 and 32. The GJM list has candidates from Ward numbers 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 17, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28 and 30. Going by their respective lists, both parties have fielded candidates from Ward numbers 2 and 5.
“Several rounds of meetings were held in Siliguri where minister Aroop Biswas, Trinamool’s representatives from the Hills, Binay Tamang and party’s Rajya Sabha MP Shanta Chhetri were present. Darjeeling district committee chairperson Alok Chakraborty and senior party leader Gautam Deb were representing the party from the plains. Senior GJM leader and general secretary Roshan Giri were also present in the meeting. The meetings were conclusive and we hope there will be a pre-poll alliance between the Trinamool Congress and GJM,” a senior party leader said. But, on Tuesday, when the lists were out, it became evident that there would be no smooth sailing. Even if the alliance happens, it will have its own pitfalls.
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The ruling party of Bengal is already facing a tough situation with an apparent rift rising between party supremo Mamata Banerjee and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Abhishek is Mamata's nephew. Trouble started brewing inside Trinamool Congress since last year’s Assembly elections when Abhishek had publicly favoured practising the ‘one person, one post’ formula. Barring Mamata Banerjee, he had said, the rule will be applicable for all. The decision had made senior party functionaries jittery. Of late Abhishek had again gone vocal about fixing a retirement age for political workers and had said, re-entry of those party leaders who had left for BJP before the elections, will not be easy. Finally, all hell broke loose when two parallel candidate lists were made public for the February 27 civic polls.
The list, which was released and was uploaded on the party’s website, was on many occasions different from the one made public by two senior party functionaries Subrata Bakshi and Partha Chatterjee. According to the grapevine, Mamata had not approved the list uploaded on the website as it was prepared and released by political think tank I-Pac of poll strategist Prashant Kishore. The situation has turned so sour that Mamata even refused to incorporate Abhishek Banerjee among the coordinators for the civic polls. Subrata Bakshi, Firhad Hakim, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Pulak Roy, Moloy Ghatak, Partha Bhowmick, Sukhendusekhar Roy and Subhasis Chakraborty are the coordinators chosen by Mamata Banerjee.
The opposition BJP had seized the opportunity to target Mamata Banerjee. Party MP Arjun Singh said, “Trinamool Congress is no longer under Mamata Banerjee. Abhishek Banerjee has scripted her farewell. The party is now being run by I-Pac and that is the reason there is so much resentment over the candidate list. In fact, by making some person candidates in the civic polls, Trinamool Congress is only creating ways and means to siphon off public funds.” Amid the growing tensions and discontent over the list of candidates, all eyes are on Mamata Banerjee’s next move over the issue.
