Trinamool leaders out of sync with party line despite LS polls show

After a stellar show in the Lok Sabha election in which the party won 29 of the 42 seats in West Bengal, leaders of the Trinamool Congress are targeting one another, appearing out of sync with the party line.

After a stellar show in the Lok Sabha election in which the party won 29 of the 42 seats in West Bengal, leaders of the Trinamool Congress are targeting one another, appearing out of sync with the party line.

Four-time Lok Sabha member from Birbhum, Satabadi Roy, who won with a margin of over 1.97 lakh votes, took a dig at Trinamool’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal saying it is “possible to win elections without violence”.

Birbhum has been synonymous with political violence and Mr. Mondal, now in Tihar jail, has been accused of targeting the supporters of Opposition parties. The Trinamool leader was arrested in July 2022 by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the cattle smuggling scam and has been behind the bars since then. After his arrest, the Trinamool won the panchayat elections and the Lok Sabha election in the district without much resistance. The party won the Bolpur Lok Sabha seat in Birbhum district by a margin of 3.27 lakh votes this time. The remarks by the veteran party MP came despite the Trinamool leadership keeping faith in Mr. Mondal and retaining him as district president even after two years of his arrest.

In the State’s Hooghly district, Balagarh MLA and Dalit writer Manoranjan Byapari said he was asked to keep away from the Lok Sabha election on the ‘instructions’ of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The award-winning author said he was being singled out because he raised questions on the corruption within Trinamool. The party won the Hooghly seat by a margin of 76,000 votes.

Factionalism has been one of the major challenges for the ruling dispensation and Ms. Banerjee and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have been trying to keep the house in order. While daggers are drawn in the Bharatiya Janata Party over the party’s poll debacle, the fact that Trinamool leaders are sounding discordant notes has been a subject of discussion in political circles.

Ms. Banerjee has already expressed her anger towards a section of police officers and has said that they were “trying to ride two boats together”. She raised questions on how news of important administrative developments reached Opposition leaders in the State.

Abhishek on break