TMC names Pratikur as party’s spokesperson

Kolkata: Former CPI(M) leader Pratikur Rahaman, who recently joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC), has been made a party spokesperson.

Sources said that Rahaman has been asked to carry out extensive campaigns to make “Unnoyoner Panchali” more popular among the people. He will also uphold the party’s version on various ongoing issues.

Rahaman joined the TMC in the presence of Abhishek Banerjee at the TMC’s Amtala office last month.

Banerjee then claimed that Rahaman, during a meeting, told him that he had no aspiration to become a candidate for the ruling party in the Assembly elections.

On February 16, he resigned from the CPI(M)’s state committee as well as its primary membership, stating that he was “unable to align with the party’s district and state leadership’s views and strategies on some issues in recent times”.

Rahaman, who had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Diamond Harbour on a CPI(M) ticket, was defeated by Abhishek Banerjee.

Earlier, Rahaman had spoken to the media about his dissatisfaction with certain members of the CPI(M) leadership, alleging a “gag culture” and nepotism that, he claimed, sidelined him within the organisation.