Kolkata/New Delhi:
In another jolt to Mamata Banerjee a day after her faction of the Trinamool Congress was not allotted the party symbol and logo, her candidate has withdrawn from the bypoll for the Nandigram seat. This is the same Assembly constituency that the chief of the Trinamool Congress, now the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, had lost to her one-time lieutenant, Suvendu Adhikari, in 2021.
After unending speculation over whether Banerjee would contest the bypoll from the constituency this time and return to the Assembly, her faction of the Trinamool had announced Sanchita Pradhan Dey as the candidate on Sunday. The choice of Dey – a teacher in Nandigram who had lost her job following the cancellation of the appointments of 26,000 teachers in connection with the alleged teachers’ recruitment scam – had raised eyebrows because she was seen as a low-profile pick for a seat with such political, and even emotional, significance.
Sources said Dey met West Bengal Chief Minister and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday, the day the Election Commission announced that it was freezing the Trinamool name and symbol and neither the Mamata Banerjee faction nor the Ritabrata Banerjee faction would get to use them for the bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar. A photo of this meeting also emerged.
The announcement that Dey would withdraw came on Friday afternoon, just as Mamata Banerjee began a press conference to slam the Election Commission for not allotting the name and symbol to her, and allege a BJP hand in it.
The last day for filing nominations was Wednesday and, left without a candidate, Banerjee sprang a surprise during the press conference. Her party, she said, would support the Congress in Nandigram, just days after it denied any such arrangement.
“The BJP did the same to Uddhav Thackeray’s party. First they broke the Shiv Sena, then the NCP, and they threatened that we should join hands with them. We refused, and that’s why they did this to the Trinamool Congress. How can they seize my party symbol of 29 years? The Election Commission’s interim order is illegal. How can they issue it after nominations were filed? These are dirty tricks. We won’t bow before the Election Commission. We will fight and bounce back,” Banerjee thundered at the press conference.
Then came the first bombshell.
“We had decided earlier and we have given our support to the Congress in Nandigram. Rahul Gandhi called me yesterday, but we did not discuss Nandigram. We are together. We will not surrender to the BJP,” Banerjee said.
And then another.
“We have taken this decision (to extend support) within the party. The Congress does not know,” she revealed.
Alliance Issues
Mamata Banerjee backing the Congress in West Bengal, even for a bypoll, would have been difficult to imagine just a few months ago. The united Trinamool Congress and the Congress, despite being allies at the national level as part of the INDIA bloc, had been at loggerheads in the state even until the Assembly elections earlier this year. Banerjee, riding high during her third term in the state, was being projected as the bloc’s natural leader and prime ministerial candidate, riling the Congress, which has the most seats among the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
READ | ‘Trinamool Is Liability For Bypoll’: Congress Leaves Mamata Banerjee On Seen
The Bengal results on May 4 changed all of this, with the Trinamool Congress being reduced to just 80 seats, down from 215, in the 294-member Assembly. A majority of Trinamool MLAs, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, then rebelled, leaving the former chief minister with only a handful of legislators. Rebellions by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs followed, rubbing salt in her wounds.
New Names
On Friday, the Election Commission allotted new names and symbols to the Mamata and Ritabrata factions.
Ritabrata’s group, led by Arup Roy, has been allotted the name ‘Democratic Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘Envelope’ symbol, while the faction led by Mamata Banerjee has been allotted the name ‘Mamata All India Trinamool Congress’ and the ‘Football Player’ symbol.
The bypolls will be held on October 6, and results will be declared on October 9.
