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Bengal Congress leader quits, floats new party

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: Just days before the Congress-led UPA government faced the trust vote, the West Bengal Congress got a jolt on Saturday, following the decision of one of its front-ranking leaders, Somen Mitra, to quit the party and float a new one, to join forces with the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee.

Mr. Mitra, an MLA and a former chief of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress, said that he was no quitter but he had to take this decision as he felt that this was the only way left to fight the CPI(M).

“We had no alternative”

“I had wanted to carry forward our opposition to the CPI(M) from within the Congress jointly with the TMC, but she was averse to the Congress platform and so we were forced to launch a new party. We had no alternative.”

The party has been tentatively named Pragatisheel Indira Congress Dal (Progressive Indira Congress Dal). He, however declined to divulge as to how many other Congressmen would follow suit. “Wait and see,” he said. On the party’s future he said that he was no fortune-teller.

The Congress downplayed Mr. Mitra’s departure, with its leaders saying that the party would survive such comings and goings. “The Congress party is like a vast ocean, a small spillage can never make a major difference,” said Subrata Mukherjee , himself a former state minister and a senior Congress leader.

TMC leader Mamata Banerjee welcomed the development saying that her party would support anyone whose main agenda was to oppose the CPI(M) here.

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