Mamata protests attacks on TMC workers
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday held a dharna in central Kolkata to protest against alleged post-poll attacks on party workers and leaders following the BJP’s victory in recent assembly elections.
Banerjee asserted that she would not abandon TMC workers after the party’s defeat in the recent assembly polls. Addressing TMC supporters at her day-long dharna at Esplanade’s Y-channel, Banerjee said anti-BJP parties would soon formulate a country-wide opposition programme.
“Very soon, all anti-BJP parties will meet in Delhi. Wait for a few days and we will soon announce our country-wide course of action,” the TMC chief said, referring to the scheduled INDIA bloc meeting next week. Banerjee reached the dharna site after the TMC’s appeal to hold the protest at the adjacent Rani Rashmoni Road was turned down by the Kolkata Police. “We were not given permission to set up a stage or use microphones,” Banerjee said, while addressing the crowd using a megaphone.
The protest was marked by chaos, with TMC workers shouting slogans amid the former chief minister’s speech.
Banerjee was seen accompanied by the party’s old guards, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, Derek O’Brien, Kalyan Banerjee and Dola Sen, amid the conspicuous absence of most of the fresh faces who won the assembly seats on TMC tickets.
The party supremo, however, asserted that the dharna, to protest Saturday’s attack on her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, alleged post-poll violence and hawker eviction, will continue till the evening as scheduled.
TMC Heading Towards a Split: Tapas Roy
Kolkata: West Bengal minister Tapas Roy on Tuesday claimed that the opposition TMC was heading towards a split similar to the ones witnessed in Maharashtra. Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, Roy claimed the TMC had accommodated people with little political background and that internal contradictions were now surfacing. BJP MLA of Maniktala claimed it would eventually disappear from the state’s political landscape. “There is growing dissatisfaction among many leaders and legislators. The developments indicate that the party is heading towards a split, a situation similar to what happened in Maharashtra,” claimed the veteran leader, who switched over to the BJP from the TMC in 2024. Earlier, senior TMC MLA Sobhandeb asserted that the majority of the party legislators would remain with supremo Mamata, and the old guards would continue to retain control of the organisation. He alleged that attempts were being made by the ruling dispensation to engineer defections and destabilise the opposition but maintained that the TMC was united. Expelled TMC MLA Ritabrata, who is believed to be the leader of the rebel camp, claimed that the party has been “hijacked by I-PAC and no longer belongs to Mamata”. Banerjee made the comment outside the assembly, with his visit to the House when it is not in session fuelling further speculations.
