Mamata struggles to maintain peace in party

With the Panchayat elections coming up, Mamata Banerjee has called for a meeting with all the members of the party, including her 24 MPs (except Kabir Suman), 185 MLAs, presidents of all the districts and blocks, in an urgent bid to stop the infighting in her party.

The word is, most of her MPs and MLAs are not very happy with the the way the government is functioning. Many want controversial steps like the circular of the Library Department to purchase of selected newspapers, eviction of hawkers going against the national Hawker Policy and evicting people from the Majdur Colony and the Labour Colony of Nonadanga in the eastern fringes have given rise to dissatisfaction. They feel that these decisions may back-fire and harm the party’s prospects. Reacting to this, Railway Minister Mukul Roy quipped, “This government will rule at least for 1865 days. Only 200 days have passed, and we are talking of its demise already.”

In most places, the infighting has degenerated into vandalism and violence. The former ‘liberated zones’ from CPM oppression like Aranbagh, Goghat, Keshpur, Haripal, parts of Bankura and south 24 Parganas are the areas which have been literally been reduced to war zones. Even Haldia of East Medinipur, the lost kingdom of Laxman Seth which is now totally under TMC grip, become a centre of factional activities.

Four senior leaders and ministers fell victims to these clashes at various times.  Partha Chattopadhyay, the No 2 in cabinet, had to face factional clash at a Panchayati Raj meeting at Arambagh, Hooghly when warring factions snatched away the microphone from his hand. Union Minister Chaudhury Mohan Jatua’scar was also vandalized by deprived section of TMC at Canning in South 24 Parganas. The leader of the deprived section was killed last week by the other faction.

Tourism Minister and former IPA officer Rachpal Singh’s was probably the worst affected when hi car was vandalised by Trinamool activists in Singur. They attacked hi car using bamboo sticks and iron rods in presence of police. The angry TMC workers were shouting slogans against Becharam Manna, MLA and the Secretary of TMC-backed Singur Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee, which fought the struggle against Tata Motor.

According to Police reports, more than 100 persons have lost lives due to political clashes during last 11 months. A sizable section of them are TMC activists killed by rival factions. CPM claimed more than 60 of its cadres have been killed during this period. Congress alleged, TMC has killed over a dozen of its activists.

With principal partner Congress unhappy with the high handed tactics at the centre, mamata must get her house in shape as early as possible.