4 winning Cong candidates switch to Trinamool

Kolkata: Expressing their desire to work for the masses, four winning candidates of Congress from Birbhum’s Murarai I Block, in Kalahapur village, switched to Trinamool Congress just a month after the conclusion of the Panchayat elections in the state.

The development took place on Monday night when these four winning Congress candidates switched camps to TMC after accepting the party flag from Trinamool’s Bolpur MLA and state’s MSME and Textile minister, Chandranath Sinha. The candidates are said to have gone to the residence of the minister for the joining event.

The candidates concerned are Hakima Bibi from the Rajgram Panchayat area, Regina Mardi from the Mohanpur area, Rabiul Mondal from Abdullahpur and Sabitri Saha from the Gorsa Gram Panchayat area. Also present in this joining ceremony were TMC’s block president of Murarai I, Binoy Kumar Ghosh, and the TMC’s general secretary of Birbhum district, Tridib Bhattacharya.

However, all four defectors clarified that they were under no pressure to join TMC but have done so out of their own volition. One of them, Sabitri Saha is learnt to have said that her motive for defection was to work for the people.

TMC MLA Chandranath Sinha confirmed to the media that all four won the rural election on Congress tickets but realised that it won’t be possible to work for people by staying in Congress and neither can they preach about the development in the rural areas, which has happened under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, by staying outside TMC. So much so, Sinha alleged that the candidates had signed nomination papers thinking they were contesting on Trinamool’s ticket.

The defections to TMC from Congress had begun since the run-up to the Panchayat polls. Earlier, a Congress candidate withdrew his nomination and joined Trinamool Congress along with 145 other families residing within the limits of Sahebnagar Panchayat. The reason cited was the inability to work for people by staying in Congress.

Commenting on whether such defections from Congress to TMC may affect the understanding that the top rung leaders of these two parties are trying to forge at the national level for the upcoming Parliamentary elections, a political observer opined that if such defections continue then it will become difficult for both the parties to convince their lower rung workers to work together during the Lok Sabha polls which may affect the ambition to dethrone the BJP at the Centre. “It is workers at the lower level who help a party fight elections,” it was remarked.