Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) will go ahead with its planned sit-in in Kolkata today against what the Bengal opposition party calls attacks on its leaders and workers, and the Railways’ hawker eviction drive, despite the police denying permission for it.
The move comes amid mounting political turbulence within the TMC after expelling two MLAs for alleged anti-party activities, with reports also suggesting that more party leaders are in touch with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which secured a landslide victory in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections.
On Monday, a meeting with TMC MLAs was cancelled after only 20 of the 80 party legislators arrived at Banerjee’s residence, news agency PTI reported.
Why protest?
TMC supremo and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee has alleged that while the common people and small traders were living in fear, and hawkers were being evicted without a proper rehabilitation plan, the ruling BJP was using “money and power” to engineer defections in her party.
The former chief minister, however, asserted that the departure of leaders from the party fold for personal interests would help rebuild the organisation, and the TMC would emerge stronger from the crisis.
“Why are people frightened? Why are people anxious? The entire atmosphere has changed. Kolkata and Bengal have been handed over to lumpens,” she alleged.
Banerjee said that 12 TMC workers had been killed since the Assembly elections and that thousands of party activists had been arrested, while many others had been forced to flee their homes.
‘Democratic protests being obstructed’
“Democratic protests were being obstructed,” she said, pointing out that police have denied permission for her party’s dharna in the heart of Kolkata against issues such as hawker evictions and attacks on party workers and alleged irregularities in the NEET examination.
Mamata declared the protest would go ahead regardless of official permission. “If we are not allowed to hold a dharna there, I will sit wherever I am stopped. I am ready to be arrested,” Banerjee said.
The TMC supremo also said that if she was not allowed to hold the protest in Kolkata, she would go to Delhi.
Apparently referring to BJP leader and Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who was once a close aide of Banerjee, the TMC supremo said that she had fielded him in polls as she knew her father and family for a long time.
Mamata Banerjee claimed that she had been conveyed a message suggesting that some leaders would return to the party if her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was removed from the organisation’s leadership.
“I know these people very well. Those who have no ideology or principles cannot dictate terms to us,” she said.
She also alleged that the BJP was targeting Abhishek Banerjee because of his growing political stature and claimed that he was recently denied proper medical treatment after being attacked.
Last week, Abhishek Banerjee was roughed up in Sonarpur, in the southern outskirts of Kolkata, where an angry crowd pelted him with eggs and stones when he went there to visit the family of a TMC worker killed, allegedly in post-poll violence.
Mamata Banerjee alleged that hospitals were pressured against admitting him and described it as an example of “political vendetta”.
She also claimed that the police have arrested those who were trying to protect Abhishek Banerjee and said that he could have suffered a fatal head injury had he not worn a helmet.
Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP government of withdrawing security cover for opposition leaders and using the police machinery to intimidate elected representatives.
“Police are being used to threaten MLAs and force local representatives to resign. This is not democracy,” she alleged.
Targeting defectors, Banerjee said several leaders now leaving the TMC had enjoyed power and positions for years but were changing sides to protect personal interests.
On Expelled MLAs
Taking a swipe at MLA Ritabrata Banerjee, who, along with Sandipan Saha, has been expelled from the TMC, she said the party had made a mistake by accommodating him after he was expelled by the CPI(M) in 2017.
“I thank the CPI(M) for expelling him. Our mistake was giving him a ticket after he came and fell at my feet seeking an opportunity. We trusted him and even denied tickets to others to accommodate him. Today he has betrayed the party and the people who elected him,” Banerjee said.
“We are happy that they have left. We will rebuild the party. Such people were never our assets,” she added.
In an apparent reference to TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who has resigned from all organisational posts of the Trinamool Congress, Banerjee alleged the parliamentarian was attempting to align with the BJP.
She further claimed that the MP had sought nomination for her son to fight the assembly elections.
Democratic protests were being obstructed. If we are not allowed to hold a dharna there, I will sit wherever I am stopped. I am ready to be arrested.
Banerjee accused the BJP of attempting to use the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and administrative measures to intimidate supporters of the opposition party and alleged that democratic institutions were being misused.
The BJP is yet to respond to the allegations.
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