TMC mulls new strategy for Birbhum

Kolkata: To address recent issues relating to the defection of lower-rung party workers in the Birbhum district where the BJP leader Amit Shah is also likely to visit soon, Trinamool Congress (TMC) is mulling a new strategy ahead of the Panchayat elections.

To begin with, the party has decided to first hold a public meeting in Murarai, Birbhum to counter the allegations made by the BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari at the same place on Sunday.

Party sources said that a meeting comprising the core committee members of the district was convened on Monday, where a decision surrounding a counter meeting on Tuesday was made.

Party insiders said that the decision was taken on short notice as TMC’s top rung leaders, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee, decided not to leave any ground to Suvendu who has been mounting scathing attacks against TMC using the cattle scam and teacher recruitment scam issues.

TMC’s organisational leaders in Birbhum are said to have compiled a point-by-point rebuttal to all the allegations levelled against the party by Adhikari on Sunday.

The decision of the party to adopt an all-out attack approach against the Opposition parties in Birbhum also comes in the wake of defections of TMC workers in the district ahead of the Panchayat polls.

On Saturday, about 500 workers switched camps to Congress. The defections happened in the Sitalgram Panchayat’s Bandhkhola village in Hansan constituency. Previously, over 2000 workers had called it quits at a party meeting led by TMC’s booth president in Mahidpur village — a minority-dominated area which was considered a TMC stronghold.

The defected party workers pledged their alliances to the Left-Front and Congress alliance. This includes TMC booth presidents Janarul Mullick and Seikh Sahajul, and their deputies like Nuruddin Mollah and Allal Mollah, among others.

This exodus also happened at a time when the district president Anubrata Mondal is in Tihar Jail in relation to a cattle smuggling case. Mondal is said to have known the district like the back of his hand. In his absence, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has been playing the role of an observer.

It is learnt that party supremo Mamata has now formed a nine-member core committee for Birbhum and has engaged state law minister Moloy Ghatak and Pandaveswar MLA Naren Chakraborty as unofficial observers in the district. Senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim continues to hold the prime responsibility for the district.