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Tag: Trinamool Congress

  • Trinamool Congress leaders in West Bengal received COVID vaccine shots meant for health workers: BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Reacting to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s jibe at the centre for sending “inadequate” supply of vaccines to West Bengal, the BJP Sunday retorted sharply, saying in fact several TMC leaders queued up for the jabs meant for healthcare personnel and frontline workers resulting in shortage of doses for the needy.

    Several TMC leaders, including two MLAs, were among the people who received the COVID-19 vaccine in Purba Bardhaman district on Saturday, the opening day of the nationwide vaccination programme.

    Many healthcare workers in the state had alleged that they could not get the jab though they were asked to come for it.

    Amid natiowide launch of vaccination drive Saturday,Banerjee had expressed her dissatisfaction over “inadequate” number of COVID-19 vaccines supplied to West Bengal for the inoculation process and said her government, if needed, would supply the vaccines free of cost to the people.

    “The vaccines sent by the central government are for healthcare staffers, police personnel and other frontline workers who are serving the society in the pandemic situation. Nearly 3.5 crore vials were dispatched by the centre across the country. These doses are not meant for political leaders.”

    “If these vaccines were taken by some TMC leaders,there would be a shortfall,” BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh told reporters Sunday.

    Some TMC leaders are so scared of their lives that they jumped the gun, violating the norms, he quipped.

    With the state elections around the corner, the saffron party launched a strong counter-offensive against the TMC on the vaccination exercise.

    Elections to 294-member Bengal assembly are due in April- May this year hence even the much-awaited vaccination drive did not remain untouched from the ongoing political mudslinging in the poll-bound state.

    Hours after Banerjee’s allegations the previous day, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had launched a broadside against the feisty Bengal leader, slamming her for making “baseless” allegations.

    Vijayvargiya accused Banerjee of trying to politicise the vaccination programme ahead of the assembly polls.

    “She should stop politicising everything. None of the states has complained only she is complaining about it. She is trying to politicize the issue before the assembly polls,” Vijayvargiya told PTI.

    He claimed that if the vaccines for the health workers fell short it was due to TMC leaders queuing up for the jabs.

    According to a state government official, Bengal was supposed to receive over 10 lakh vaccines in the first phase, but have got 6.89 lakh doses so far.

    Around 15,707 people were administered the first dose of the COVID 19 vaccine in the state on Saturday.

    Taking a cue from the TMC supremo, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee attacked the BJP-led central government Sunday for making available less than required doses of vaccines to the state.

    “The centre is not adequately supplying COVID vaccines to West Bengal. It is keeping control over the supplies. If needed, the state government will bear the cost of administering the vaccine to every person in the state,” Chatterjee said.

    Alleging that the BJP had not joined the fight against COVID-19 in the state, he said the saffron party’s only agenda is to “carry out personal attacks in the run-up to the assembly polls”.

    Two TMC MLAs Subhash Mondal and Rabindranath Chatterjee and former TMC MLA Banamali Hazra were among the beneficiaries of vaccination drive on the day of launch Saturday in Purba Bardhaman district.

    Chief Medical Officer of the district Pranab Roy, however, had said the public representatives who received the vaccines were part of the Patient Welfare Committees at different hospitals.

    “Since they are associated with ensuring good services at the hospitals, they are also eligible for the vaccine. There is nothing irregular in it,” he said.

  • Miffed Trinamool Congress MP Satabdi Roy named state unit vice-president

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Three time Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Satabdi Roy, who has called a truce with the party after a brief rebellion that triggered speculations of her crossing over to the BJP, was on Sunday appointed vice-president of the West Bengal unit of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

    Expressing happiness over the news, Roy told reporters, she will work as a dedicated worker of the party and ensure defeat of the BJP in the coming assembly polls.

    “If you take up the matter concerning the party with the top leadership, it is addressed. This development proves that. I welcome the decision,” Roy said on her appointment as the state unit vice-president in the reshuffle.

    Roy, an actor-turned-politician and a leading face in the Mamata Banerjee’s cultural brigade, is the third consecutive term Lok Sabha member from Birbhum.

    She had snatched the Birbhum seat from CPM heavyweight Ram Chandra Dome in 2009 on debut and managed to win it by an overwhelming margin in 2019, even as the BJP had routed the Trinamool Congress in the nearby constituencies.

    Roy was among the prominent leaders who had joined Banerjee’s Singur and Nandigram movement in 2009 that ended the Left Front rule and catapulted the feisty Bengal leader to power in the state. The Birbhum MP had voiced dissent Friday over not being informed about the party events in her constituency which she said caused “mental pain”.

    In a Facebook post she had said that she will inform the public Saturday if she takes any “decision”, following which the jittered Trinamool Congress leaders had started reaching out to her. She changed her stance and expressed full confidence in the leadership of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee after meeting the Diamond Harbour MP Friday evening.

    TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh had also met Roy to dissuade her from leaving the party.

    After hammering a solution to her grievances, Roy had Saturday praised Abhishek Banerjee, who is nephew of the chief minister, for giving her a patient hearing and said she “is pleased with the way the young leader assured” her of resolving all the issues.

    Returning satisfied after a two-hour long meeting with Abhishek Banerjee she had made it clear that she will remain with the Trinamool Congress. She also admonished party colleagues having problems like her to discuss the issues with the party instead of looking for other options.

    The actor-politician had said it would be “unethical to look for other options” when the party is facing a tough fight. Polls to 294-member Bengal assembly are due in April-May.

    Banerjee’s party is witnessing exodus of its disgruntled leaders to a resurgent saffron party which is making all efforts to win the state after an impressive performance in the 2019 Parliamentary election winning 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, only four less than the TMC tally of 22.

    Last month, Suvendu Adhikari, along with 35 party leaders including five MLAs and an MP, joined the BJP, setting off a churning as several disgruntled leaders rallied behind him. In the rejig in the TMC, the party announced new names for the state committee which included Moazzem Hossain and Shankar Chakraborty in addition to Satabdi Roy.

    In another significant development, former administrator of Asansol Municipal Corporation and Trinamool leader Jitendra Tiwari, who had voiced discontent over running of the civic board and had even met Suvendu Adhikari and Sunil Mondal on the eve of their joining BJP on December 17, has been removed from the post of district president of Paschim Bardhaman.

    Tiwari, who had iterated to work for TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee after a meeting with the party leadership in the last week of December, has been replaced by Apurba Mukhopadhyay as the TMC district president. “This decision has been taken as I did not take back my resignation letter as the administrator. As an MLA and an ordinary worker, I will continue to serve my organization,” Tiwari said.

    Asked about the appointment of Roy and other leaders in the state committee and new faces in the district committees, Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said, “It is an organisational matter. Why should we discuss this with the media?”

  • Mamata government’s decision to bring resolution against farm laws poll gimmick to fool masses: BJP

    State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh wondered that if the TMC is so concerned for the farmers, then why is it quot;creating roadblocks quot; for the implementation of the new agriculture laws.

  • West Bengal’s TMC government appropriating central schemes: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari

    By PTI
    PURULIA: Senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday accused the Mamata Banerjee dispensation of appropriating central projects, and said only three to four people in the state government call the shots, with the rest functioning as rubber stamps.

    Maintaining that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already said that three crore health workers and 27 crore people above the age of 50 years will be administered the vaccine for free across the country, Adhikari claimed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, despite the announcement, wrote to all COVID warriors and stated that her government would not charge anything for the inoculation.

    Earlier in the day, Banerjee said that arrangements were being made to provide COVID-19 vaccines for free to all the people of the state, and not just the COVID-19 warriors. She also clarified that frontline workers would be given priority over others.

    Alleging that the TMC government was changing names of central projects to claim those to be its own, the former state minister said, “The name of Centre’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan project has been changed to Nirmal Bangla mission.”

    Adhikari, during a public meeting here, also contended that natural resources of Purulia, including coal and other minerals, were being looted by organised gangs, with the state government doing nothing about it.

    The former MLA, during his speech at an adivasi- dominated district, further said that the ‘Ol Chiki’ language of Santhalis was given recognition in the eighth schedule of the Constitution by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the TMC government did not provide any book or teaching facility to promote it.

    He also claimed that the TMC has ceased to be a political party and functions as a private limited company, with “three or four persons from south Kolkata running the government with 20 of 30 departments in their hands”.

    Asserting that the rural areas of the state have long been neglected by the TMC leadership, he said that the “fight is between the villages and a few privileged persons from south Kolkata”. He also said that the district-level service commissions for recruitment of school teachers have been replaced by a centralised system based in Kolkata, thereby reducing job opportunities for youths.

  • Imams’ body to oppose AIMIM’s entry into the West Bengal poll arena

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal Imams’ Association said on Wednesday that they will hit the streets and gather support against the AIMIM’s decision to participate in the upcoming Assembly elections by fielding candidates in an alliance with influential Islamic cleric Abbas Siddiqui. 

    The Imam’s body alleged that the AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s decision to venture into Bengal’s electoral arena is with the goal of ensuring a division of votes in favour of the BJP in next year’s elections.

    ALSO READ | Amit Shah likely to address Matuas to quell discontent ahead of West Bengal polls The Imams’ Association also said that, if necessary, they will form a new organisation and contest the upcoming elections to foil the plans of AIMIM and Abbas. The ruling Trinamool Congress enjoys the support of the Muslims who form more than 30 per cent of the total electorate in Bengal. The community switched allegiance to the TMC’s fold in the 2011 Assembly elections, a decision that played a major part in the Left Front’s decimation. On January 3, Owaisi had visited Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district and met Abbas signalling AIMIM’s entry into the 2021 Assembly elections fray. 

    The entry of AIMIM and its alliance with Abbas is said to be aimed at chipping away at the minority vote share of the TMC. Both the TMC and the CPI(M) have described Owaisi as BJP’s proxy.

    ALSO READ | Owaisi’s party did not eat into Mahagathbandhan votes in Bihar

    After putting up an impressive show in last year’s Bihar Assembly elections by bagging five seats, the AIMIM is now eyeing the upcoming Bengal polls. The party is keen to leave its footprint on the politically volatile soil of Bengal, said the outfit’s state secretary Jamirul Hassan.

  • Country is plagued with misogynists from BJP: TMC on Vijayvargiya’s tweet against Mamata

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Women leaders of the Trinamool Congress have slammed BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, accusing him of posting a misogynistic tweet against West Bengal Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

    Vijayvargiya, also the saffron party’s Bengal minder, shared a photo of Banerjee, in which she is seen cooking in a tribal village, on Twitter and, in an accompanying statement, said in Hindi, “Didi has already started doing the work she will have to do after 5 months.” 

    Banerjee’s photo was taken at Ballavpur village where she had stopped for some time while returning to Kolkata from Birbhum district last week.

    The assembly election in the state is due in April-May this year.

    Reacting sharply to Vijayvargiya’s post, TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed that the country is filled with misogynists from the BJP who think the place of a woman is in the kitchen.

    “If you are a woman and you have aspirations to join active politics, remember – our country is plagued with MISOGYNISTS from BJP like these who plan to send women back to the kitchen,” Ghosh Dastidar tweeted.

    “Can’t imagine the lack of respect that women in Kailash Vijayvargiya family must be facing,” the doctor turned politician said.

    West Bengal minister Shashi Panja said, “BJP shows their true colors again! This is what they think of the only sitting female CM in India. No wonder our women are not safe under their rule! Before your misogyny strikes again, remind yourselves of the Chaiwala who’s now your boss!”

    Actor turned party MP Nusrat Jahan said “Shri Kailash Vijayvargiya’s comments are OUTRIGHT MISOGYNISTIC! BJP crossed the mark by insulting every single woman who cooks, provides for families and has aspirations. Mamata Banerjee is the only female CM in India at present and once again, BJP targets and abuses her. #Shameful.” 

    BJP Mahila Morcha state president Agnimitra Paul, however, wondered how that tweet of Vijayvargiya could be misogynistic.

    “Cooking cannot be a demeaning job. Our mothers and grandmothers cooked for days to sustain the family. Millions of women – working or housewives – cook with passion for their near ones every day. There are thousands of male chefs who are proud of their work. How can the tweet be demeaning or misogynistic?” she told PTI.

    Paul, also a fashion designer, claimed that at a meeting in the past, TMC MP Abhisek Banerjee had asked the crowd if they will wear sari and bangle if attacked.

    “Isn’t that demeaning to Indian women? Wearing sari and bangle is the pride of Indian women. What would the TMC women MPs have to say about that?” Paul asked.

    Mamata Banerjee made a sudden detour and entered the tribal village while returning to Kolkata after wrapping up a two-day visit to Bolpur in Birbhum district on December 30.

    She joined tribal women and cooked vegetables during the surprise visit to the village.

    Vijayvargiya on that day had said the chief minister’s sudden visit to the village was nothing but a “drama”.

    His alleged misogynistic tweet was posted on the next day.

  • Mamata accuses BJP of destroying institutions

    Continuing her tirade against the BJP-led NDA Government for “taking India towards a political chaos,” Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the saffron Government had ensured that the key institutions of the country were destroyed.

    In an apparent bid to catch the bull by its horn the Chief Minister also announced counter-Yatras in the wake of BJP’s much publicised Rath Yatras beginning next month. The TMC Yatras will follow the route of the BJP Yatras, she said.

    The Narendra Modi Government was tearing down the major institutions like Reserve Bank of India and Central Bureau of Investigation Banerjee said promising to do everything to protect these organizations.

    “They (Modi Government) are destroying all the key institutions of the country,” Banerjee who had earlier been critical of changing the Planning Commission into Niti Ayog said adding how the Centre was “trying to change the way the RBI and the CBI function.”

    The ruling outfit (read BJP) that was making “‘building statues’ its poll agenda will itself become a statue after the coming Lok Sabha elections,” Banerjee told a party meeting in Kolkata.

    Dropping hints that the Trinamool Congress was planning to take central stage in Delhi post 2019 general elections, Banerjee said the way the BJP was trying to divide the country and implementing regimes like the National Register for Citizens would force her party to “play a bigger role in the coming days.

    “We will not tolerate division in the society and persecution of innocent people in the name of NRC,” Banerjee said giving a call for “BJP Hatao Desh Bachao (save India by driving away the BJP)”.

    The Chief Minister who had called a mega rally in January to be held at the historic Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata where she had invited all the anti-BJP parties said “all parties barring a few have confirmed their desire to attend the rally,” adding the same will act as the final nail in the BJP’s coffin.

    Attacking the saffron outfit for reintroducing the age-old tactic of Rath Yatras to polarize the Hindu vote, Banerjee said, “the BJP is organizing the Rath Yatra to divide the people but we will organize similar Yatras which will be called “Ekta Yatra (Unity Rally)” on the same route that their Yatra follows.”

    The Trinamool Congress’ Yatra “is aimed at uniting and not dividing the communities,” Banerjee said.

    Incidentally the CPI(M) which was locked in a battle with the BJP for the second place in the State has also announced rallies following the same path that the BJP’s Yatra is like to take.

    The BJP is scheduled to take out three Yatras in December. While the first Yatra will start from Ganga Sagar (the southernmost tip of Bengal), the second one will commence from Tarapeeth in Birbhum district. The third Yatra will start from the northern most district o the State Coochbehar bordering Assam. The BJP’s chariots will converge at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on January 23 the birth day of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the party sources said.

    Enroute the Yatras will cover several thousand kilometers, during which 60 mass meetings will be held.

    Top BJP leaders including party president Amit Shah, Assam Chief Minister Sarwananda Sonowal and his UP counterpart Yogi Adityanath will address the BJP rallies sources said.

    “The Yatras will be taken out against Trinamool Congress’ reign of terror, its appeasement policy and its aiding the continuing infiltration through Bangladesh border,” BJP State Rahul Sinha said.

    However TMC MP and Chief Minister’s nephew said the Rath Yatra would in fact be a “luxury tour of the State in air-conditioned vehicles by the BJP leaders.”

  • Mamata blakens her display picture in solidarity with victims

    Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) erupted in a big way condemning Thursday’s Tinsukia killings with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday turning her social media display picture black as a mark of solidarity with the Assam victims’ families and lambasting the BJP for injecting fear in every household of the country.

    Five people of Bengali community were brutally gunned down by unknown assailants at Tinsukia on Thursday evening.

    While the CPI(M) took out a rally on Friday evening TMC MP and Abhishek Banerjee led a huge rally in the noon demanding Assam Chief Minister’ Sarbanand Sonwal’s resignation for “presiding over a Government of killers” and failing to protect the lives of innocent, hapless people.

    The TMC leaders tweeted “in solidarity, on Protest day to condemn the brutal killings of Bengalis by a State ruled by the BJP we are turning out Twitter/FB DPs into black,” adding street protests would continue throughout Bengal even as an embarrassed BJP leadership wondered why the Trinamool and the Left were making an issue out of the incident as “the Assam Government has taken prompt action over the issue.”

    Calling the Thursday’s killings as an “extension of Assam Government’s NRC drive” the Bengal Chief Minister said “the people who were killed on Thursday belong to the poorest of the poor section of the society” wondering whether the killings were a direct fallout of the animosity provoked by the NRC drive in that State.

    The BJP was driving out the Biharis from Gujarat, Bengalis and UP wallahs from Assam so that it had become difficult to survive peacefully in one’s own country, Banerjee alleged saying her party would always remain by the side of the victims of such mass extraditions.

    “Under this Government (in Centre) India is in the grip of fear. Every household is in fear. There is fear of demonetisation, there is fear of murder like the one happened in Tinsukia, the fear of being ejected in the name of NRC, the fear of central Agencies,” Banerjee said.

    Attacking the BJP for creating a rift among the people of the country the Chief Minister said those who were talking about nationalism and unity of the country were actually trying to divide its citizens along the lines of religion, caste, language.

    Her nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee who led the Friday’s rally too demanded immediate halt in persecution of Bengalis in Assam saying “there is a clear BJP hand in the Assam killings. The fact of the matter is that the Chief Minister of that State who had led the NRC movement should immediately resign for failing to protect the lives of the innocent citizens.”

    CPI(M) which also took out an impressive rally on Friday evening said the party would continue to carry out protest movements against the BJP’s divisive politics. “Ever since the BJP has come to power either in Delhi or in Assam or anywhere the places concerned have seen killings like this. These are no ordinary political murders but they contain communal and sectarian venom which may have far reaching effect,” CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said.