Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stuck to her old formula of roping in new and apolitical faces to neutralise the internal bickering that continued to dog the Trinamool Congress ahead of the Assembly elections stated to be held sometime in April this year.
The two new apolitical faces who joined the Trinamool in presence of the party supremo were Vaishali Dalmiya the daughter of late cricket patriarch Jagmohan Dalmiya and former India cricketer laxmi Ratan Shukla.
The Trinamool supremo also hit a pre-election ace roping in seasoned campaigner and former Cabinet Minister Abdul Rezzak Mollah who was expelled from the CPI(M) following differences with former CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
“Rejjak sahib is a farmer’s son and a senior leader of left movement whose coming with us only proves that the Trinamool is committed towards the development of rural community and peasants’ movement” Banerjee said in the extended meeting of the party’s central council.
Though Dalmiya and Shukla would not comment inside sources said the CM had brought them to dent the vote base —particularly from the Marwari community — in Howrah and North West Kolkata. The duo is likely to be fielded from these areas, insiders said. In 2014 General elections the CM had tackled the internal squabbling by fielding apolitical faces like film stars and stage artists. The bringing in of the Friday’s troika is seen as a repetition of her earlier tactic.
Meanwhile, the left on Friday came down heavily on the Chief Minister for trivialising the increasing attacks on the Opposition parties by the Trinamool men. “By playing down such attacks she is directly encouraging her party goons to unleash a reign of terror before the elections so that the voters do not come out to vote as they did in 2014,” senior CPI(M) leader and former MP Sujan Chakrabarty said.
Banerjee on Friday said that the “Opposition is needlessly playing up small incidents most of which are not done by the Trinamool members. Sometimes they paint their persons in red and make false claims of attacks” she maintained.
“By saying so she is not only inciting her own party men, but also telling the police administration about what to do when such incidents take place. They are trying to terrorise voters so that they do not come out to vote and they win easily,”Chakrabarty said.
Meanwhile the condition of seven people who were on Thursday attacked with bombs at Raina in Burdwan district continued to be critical on Friday. One person was bombed to death and 19 were injured when alleged Trinamool men indiscriminately bombed a CPI(M) rally which was returning after giving a memorandum at local the BDO office.”