April 17: The Trinamul Congress’s
sustained campaign in the Dooars and Terai has snared two John Barla
loyalists who have added to the steady stream of leaders drifting to the
ruling party from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Left.
The latest to join Mamata
Banerjee’s party are Bidhan Sarkar and Parasnath Baraik, who went to
Calcutta and joined Trinamul in the presence of party general secretary
Mukul Roy on Monday.
Sarkar was the
joint general secretary of the north Bengal committee of the Jharkhand
Mukti Morcha and Baraik the joint general secretary of Progressive Tea
Workers’ Union, which has mostly Barla loyalists.
In Birpara, around
2,000 leaders and workers of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha joined Trinamul
today, making this the single largest switch from any party to Trinamul
in recent months. Led by Shalini Chhetri, the president of the Dooars
committee of Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha, they joined the party.
Sarkar, who
reached north Bengal today, said: “During Left rule, no development work
was carried out in the Dooars. The present state government, and the
chief minister in particular, are focusing on the Dooars and have taken
up a number of initiatives, including the decision to form the
development council.”
He said: “We could
no longer bank on John Barla or on parties like the JMM and the GJM
(Morcha) which so far, have not taken up any activity or initiative to
meet the basic demands of the deprived populace in the region. Trinamul
and the state government are plugging these critical gaps. This is why
we have joined the party.”
The departure of
this duo ahead of the panchayat polls has upset John Barla, who till a
few weeks back was suposedly in talks with Trinamul for an alliance for
the rural elections.
“When we have made
repeated assertions from our end that we are ready to forge an alliance
with Trinamul, it is unbecoming on their part to induct our leaders
into the party,” Barla said today.
“Though their
departure would not affect our organisation, we feel it is an
inappropriate act and would surely give second thoughts to our proposal
for an alliance.”
Political observers and JMM insiders said leaders and workers were rushing to join Trinamul to win berths in panchayat polls.
“Trinamul is
desperate to win the maximum possible seats in the Dooars. There are
serious doubts whether it would eventually tie up with Barla unless the
latter severs its ties with the Morcha. As activities of Trinamul and
the state government in the Dooars have gone up in past four-five
months, most of these leaders and workers, who were in JMM, Morcha, or
the Left parties, are making a rush to get in to the party,” a source
said.
“One of the
principal causes is their hope that Trinamul would perform excellently
in the upcoming rural polls and they would bag a seat in the three-tier
panchayat system,” the source added. “There are equal chances of getting
nominated as a member of the proposed (Terai Dooars development)
council.”
While the state
and district leaders are welcoming entry of such leaders, Trinamul
workers at the grassroots are a bit upset with the new leaders joining
the parties from other outfits. Today, as Sarkar and Baraik reached
Banarhat from Calcutta, local Trinamul leaders did not welcome them.
Chandan Bhowmik,
the Jalpaiguri district Trinamul president, said: “It is not the
question of poaching on other parties but they (the leaders) are acting
spontaneously, seeing the sincerity of Mamata Banerjee and activities of
the government and our party workers.”
He added: “Several
hundreds of people, including prominent leaders and MLAs, have joined
Trinamul. The process would continue in the coming days.”
Asked about the resentment in Trinamul ranks, he said: “Discussions would be held with concerned leaders to resolve the issue.”
In Birpara,
Shalini Chhetri said: “We joined Trinamul as the Morcha has miserably
failed to include Dooars under GTA and have cheated the Gorkha populace
of Dooars.”
The Telegraph
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