Senior CPI(M) leader Pratikur Rahman joins TMC ahead polls
Senior CPI(M) leader Pratikur Rahaman, who resigned from the party on February 16, on Saturday joined West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, prompting the Marxist organisation to expel him. He defected to the TMC in the presence of Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, against whom he had contested in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Rahman told reporters at the Amtala office of Banerjee that he felt suffocated within the Marxist party. “I only want to fight the onslaught of the BJP’s fascism, and believe that only the TMC has the ability to face the challenge of the Hindutva forces who want to divide people,” said Rahman, who was a state committee member of the CPI(M).
Welcoming Rahman into the party fold, Banerjee said that he wanted to join TMC to work for the poor and for the organisation, and there had been no deal between him and the Trinamool for getting a nomination for the Assembly polls.
“I have seen Protikur for a long time; he had even contested against me in 2024. But he is among those young Turks in the Marxist party who are dynamic, principled and have the will to fight against the real danger the country is facing. Our fight is against the BJP,” he said. Wondering why the CPI(M)-led Left Front in Kerala is not fighting against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Banerjee said only the TMC led by Mamata Banerjee has been effectively opposing the “hasty implementation” of SIR and “able to take up the issue with the Supreme Court and force the Election Commission to follow its directives.”
“The CPI(M) can only be seen on social media. May I ask which ideology allowed the CPI(M) state secretary (Md Salim) to meet Humayun Kabir, while they proclaim they are not doing religion-based politics?” he said.
Banerjee, considered number two in the TMC hierarchy, affirmed that he will provide opportunities to the young generation who are principled and hardworking.
He named young leaders such as Rwitobroto Mukherjee, who was earlier in the CPI(M), Sayaani Ghosh, now an MP, and Debangshu Bhattacharya, who unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. “We call upon young people from different parties to come and join us to work for the poor and the people in general,” he said.
