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Sunday, Jul 11, 2004

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Trinamool rebels moving towards Congress

By Malabika Bhattacharya

KOLKATA, JUNE 10. The Nationalist Trinamool Congress appears to have come unstuck following the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's meeting with one of Trinamool's key rebels a few days ago in Delhi, sending signals to many rebels.

On June 1, Sudip Bandopadhyay, former Trinamool chief whip in Parliament, announced his return to the Congress after ``a gap of several years." He turned a rebel early this year and fought against the party candidate in Kolkata North-West on May 10 enabling the CPI (M) to win the seat. "She (Ms. Banerjee) has expelled me from the Trinamool. But I don't want to take political sanyas, so I have decided to return to the Congress," Mr. Bandopadhyay had said.

What also came as a blow was the movement of Bikram Sarkar, former Trinamool MP, in the direction of the Congress.

On June 1, Mr. Bandopadhyay, his wife Nayana, also suspended Trinamool MLA, and Mr. Sarkar shared the dais with one of West Bengal Congress heavyweight leaders, Somen Mitra.

They had all gathered at a function held in remembrance of B.C. Roy, one of the architects of post-independence Bengal.

Mr. Sarkar said that unless Ms. Banerjee changed her "autocratic" style of functioning, there was no future for the party. He criticised Ms. Banerjee for not being able to highlight the reported starvation deaths in Amlasol village in Midnapore district.

He said he could not appreciate protests like banging heads over the fuel price hike. "I don't bang my head. I don't believe in such things."

Mr. Bandopadhyay, who has floated the Ganatantrik Unnayan Mancha, said the mancha should be treated as a sort of an umbrella to provide shelter to all dissatisfied Trinamool functionaries.

He and many like him would join the Congress shortly, he said. He had met Ms. Gandhi, the Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and P.R. Das Munshi and Mr. Mitra, former State party president, and discussed the issues with them.

Mr. Sarkar has come under severe attack from Ms. Banerjee's followers who described him as "opportunist and power-hungry.''

Nine Trinamool MLAs, including Sonali Guha, Arunava Ghosh and Jyotipriya Mullick said in a statement that without Ms. Banerjee's efforts, Mr. Sarkar could not ever become MP.

"Now Sarkar has started criticising her [Ms. Banerjee]. He never loved the party. He came to Trinamool only to get benefits. Now that he has lost the election, Sarkar has begun to criticise her. He stands exposed."

Mr. Sarkar's move was not an isolated incident. The rebellion within the Trinamool came to the fore on June 28 when five Trinamool MLAs defied the party whip and abstained from voting in the Rajya Sabha election.

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