News Analysis India

Tag: Trinamool Congress

  • TMC constitutes panel to review poor performance in Goa polls

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Sunday constituted a committee to review the party’s dismal performance in the recently held assembly elections in Goa, where it drew a blank.

    TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, in a statement, said that the party will convene a series of internal review meetings to introspect its role in Goa.

    The review committee, headed by the party’s Haryana leader Ashok Tanwar, will also comprise Sushmita Dev, and Sourav Chakraborty, he said.

    “We are convening a series of internal review meetings and the first conclave will be held on March 26 where candidates, their core team members and individual members of the party will be invited,” the Diamond Harbour MP, who had visited Goa several times in past four months to build the party’s organisation, said.

    “We began our mission in Goa to fill the void created due to lack of an efficient, robust opposition. Over the next five years, we recommit ourselves to playing that role,” Banerjee said. The party secured a little over five per cent of the votes but failed to win a seat.

    Several senior Congress leaders including former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, had joined the party ahead of the elections.

  • TMC MLA Madan Mitra admitted to hospital for tumour surgery

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra was admitted to state-run SSKM Hospital here on Tuesday evening for treatment of a tumour in his throat.

    Mitra said that doctors told him that a tumour has been detected in his throat and it requires surgery.

    “I could not get admitted to the hospital due to the municipal elections. So, after these are over, I decided to get admitted today,” he told reporters.

    Mitra said that he was suffering from acute pain in the throat and was also experiencing hoarseness in his voice.

  • Who killed former Aliah University student Anis Khan? TMC, BJP trade charges

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA: The death of a former student of Aliah University Anis Khan in Howrah district has triggered a political blame game between the ruling Trinamool Congress and its rival BJP as fired salvos at each other. 

    Anis Khan was allegedly thrown off the rooftop of his house by four men wearing a police uniform in the wee hours of Saturday. A group of Kolkata’s cultural figures visited Anish’s house and demanded the arrests of the perpetrators. Police, however, denied that any one of them had visited the house of Anis Khan.

    Anis Khan was associated with the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF), which was part of the alliance that fought against the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the recent Assembly elections. Before that, he was a supporter of the CPI(M)’s students’ wing SFI. Anis had participated in a movement by students of Aliah University against the alleged poor functioning of the varsity.  

    The alleged murder of the student from the Muslim community triggered embarrassment for the TMC as the minority community is considered the party’s strong vote-bank.

    In a complaint lodged with Amta police station in Howrah, Anis’ father Salam Khan alleged four persons, one of them in police uniform barged into his house, asked about the whereabouts of his son. “When I said Anis was not at home, they ran upstairs and I heard a sound. I found Anis lying in a pool of blood below,’’ Salam said demanding a CBI probe.

    BJP’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC cadres were targeting their political rivals and now they are not sparing their own voters. ‘’We demand a high-level probe,’’ he said.

    TMC minister Firhad Hakim had yesterday said outsiders came from outside and the culprits might be from Uttar Pradesh. ‘’This is not the time to do politics. Let the police conduct an investigation to arrest the culprits,’’ he said on Sunday.

    The director-general of police ordered a probe led by an officer of the deputy superintendent of police rank.

    CPI(M)’s Rajya Sabha member Bikash Bhattacharya said Anis’s murder was fall out of a plan chalked out at the highest level.

  • Mamata Banerjee to meet CMs of non-BJP ruled states next month to discuss threat to federalism

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA: The second meeting of Trinamool Congress’s newly constituted national working committee is likely to be held in Delhi in presence of the party’s chairperson Mamata Banerjee. The date of the meeting is expected to be after March 10, after the announcement of Assembly election results in the five states.

    “In the meeting, we may discuss our stance in national politics depending on the results of the Assembly polls in five states. The chief minister herself will chair the meeting and give us the future roadmap in the arena of national politics,’’ said a senior TMC leader.

    The leader said the Bengal chief minister and the national working committee may meet the heads of the non-BJP ruled states in March over the issue of the country’s federal structure and overstepping of constitutional rights by governors in the non-BJP states.

    Mamata recently communicated with Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin over the issue of constitutional overstepping and brazen misuse of power by governors.

    On Friday, Mamata, in the first meeting of the national working committee at her Kalighat residence, reinstated her nephew as the party’s national general secretary inducting three others as vice-president. Earlier Mamata dissolved all posts of the party in the national-level hierarchy.

    Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, Subrata Bakshi, and Chandrima Bhattacharya were selected as the vice-president. ‘’Induction of three others in the newly created vice-president post seems to be an attempt to clip Abhishek’s wings as the recent development in the party suggested growing distance between him and the party supremo,’’ said another TMC leader.

    Sinha, Bakshi, and Chandrima are believed to be among those who are from Mamata’s close circle.

    In the selection process of candidate lists for the upcoming municipal elections in 107 civic bodies scheduled to be held on February 27, Mamata turned down Abhishek’s idea of fielding new faces in the fray. Prashant Kishor’s team IPAC, which was hired on Abhishek’s suggestion, uploaded a candidate list in the party social media platform without Mamata’s approval and the party had to announce a fresh list of candidates.    

    There was a strong buzz doing the rounds that Abhishek expressed a desire to step down as his earlier post in the hierarchy and Mamata was in no mood to dissuade him.

  • Goa polls 2022: Congress-GFP accuse Trinamool Congress of collecting data via voter awareness drive

    By PTI

    PANAJI: The Congress and Goa Forward Party on Saturday alleged the Trinamool Congress and poll strategy firm IPAC were collecting voter data in a “dubious manner” in the run up to the Goa Assembly polls scheduled for February 14.

    Goa Congress general secretary Sunil Kawthankar and GFP general secretary (organisation) Durgadas Kamat told reporters the two parties had jointly submitted a complaint with the Chief Election Commission in New Delhi against the TMC and IPAC.

    Kawthankar claimed the TMC and IPAC are giving out cards to women claiming they will get money once the Mamata Banerjee-led party comes to power here, and in the process were collecting personal details. “The TMC claims some three lakh women and over two lakh youth have enrolled for these schemes. It is not an awareness drive for their 2022 election campaign, but in fact a massive data collection drive in a dubious manner, which will be used for other purposes,” he alleged.

    Kamat said a complaint has been lodged with the CEC and promised the TMC and IPAC would not be allowed to carry on with this exercise.

  • TMC to raise IAS Cadre Rule amendment issue in Parliament session

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress is all set to raise the Centre’s proposed amendment to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Cadre Rule in the upcoming Parliament session scheduled to be held between January 31 and February 11, the party announced on Thursday.

    In a virtual meeting with the party MPs, TMC chairperson and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee instructed the lawmakers to demand the removal of governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as well following a recent face-off with the constitutional head of the state.

    “The central government is creating obstructions against the federal structure of the country. We will oppose the Centre’s move to transfer IAS officers, and other bureaucrats in future to the central deputation with the state government’s consent in both the houses of Parliament. We will also discuss the issue with other political parties who are against the amendment in the IAS Service Cadre Rule,” said MP Sudip Bandopadhyay.

    ALSO READ | Editorial: Take states on board before tinkering with IAS rules

    Responding to the Centre’s revised proposal to amend the IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954, which is said to be aimed to acquire bureaucrats by transferring them to central deputation without the agreement of the state governments, Mamata Banerjee on January 13 wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging the revised amendment proposal is “more draconian” and “against the foundations” of federal polity. She also said the amendment will hang on the head of each IAS officer like a “Damocles sword” and will create a “fear psychosis” that is bound to impact the officers’ performance, effectiveness and accountability to the state government.

    Sources in the party said Mamata, in Thursday’s meeting, gave the MPs a roadmap to register their protest during the upcoming Parliament session.

    “We will also demand removal of governor Jagdeep Dhankhar who is echoing the voice of the BJP in the state. He hit out at the Chief Minister and her government with a political aim on the premises of the Assembly which was not expected from a governor,” said a TMC leader. Two days ago, Dhankhar went to the Assembly to pay floral tribute to BR Ambedkar on the occasion of National Voter’s Day and slammed Mamata and her government.

    “There is now rule of law in the state. It is the ruler’s law that rules the state. No voter is safe in the state. People of this state had to pay a heavy price after they voted as per their choice. The post-poll violence was a reflection of it. The Chief Minister has no idea about the capacity of the governor,” Dhankhar had said.    

  • Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha sniffs ‘dictatorship’ in BJP’s ‘double engine’ talks

    By PTI

    PANAJI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) vice-president Yashwant Sinha on Monday dubbed the BJP’s oft-repeated phrase ‘double engine governments’ as a way to promote “dictatorship”.

    The former Union minister assured that pre-poll promises made by the TMC in Goa would be implemented if the Mamata Banerjee-led party comes to power in the coastal state after the February 14 assembly polls.

    Talking to reporters here, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said, “Sometimes in ‘double engine governments’, it is possible that one engine goes in one direction, and the other in another direction. On a serious note, I want to mention that if the central government of the BJP is trying to emphasize on wanting to run double engine governments then all they want is to run a dictatorship.”

    He said insisting on ‘double engine’ means the BJP does not want any other party to come to power in states and form government. “Today, they are talking about double engines with respect to state governments, tomorrow they will talk about triple engine with respect to panchayats. How will this work?” he questioned.

    As part its ‘double engine’ campaign narrative, BJP leaders appeal to voters to select the same party (BJP or the alliance led by it, NDA) in poll-bound states as the one ruling at the Centre to ensure better development of their states.

    Sinha said the TMC’s pre-poll assurances in Goa are doable and the party will implement them when voted to power. The TMC has forged an alliance with Goa’s oldest regional party MGP for the assembly polls. “It is my personal assurance that the pre-poll promises made by the TMC in Goa would be implemented,” he said.

    Three welfare schemes announced by the TMC – targeted at different sections of the society, including women and youth – will be implemented as soon as the party forms a government in Goa, Sinha said.

    The former Union finance minister said these schemes – Griha Laxmi, Yuva Shakti and Mhaje Ghar, Maalki Hakk (My Home, My right) – can be funded with government money and implemented with proper fiscal management.

    Sinha said these welfare schemes together will cost the government around Rs 3,300 crore annually and they can be implemented without imposing any additional tax on people or borrowing funds from the market.

    “In terms of the norms which have been fixed by the Finance Commission and the Reserve Bank of India, Goa already has an additional fiscal space of Rs 2,100 crore. So, that leaves us with Rs 1,200 crore (more), and in a (state) budget of Rs 25,000 crore, this amount can easily be allotted and spent on these welfare schemes,” he added.

  • The curious case of Mamata Banerjee’s new opposition front

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee might have talked a lot about the need for a new formidable opposition front without Congress Party to take on the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections but her idea seems to be going a non-starter with a majority of UPA allies sounding unfavourable with the idea. The UPA allies in a good number feel that Mamata’s idea of forming a new political front of opposition parallel to UPA will ultimately benefit the BJP in the next 2024 LS elections if the idea is translated into reality.

    Buoyed over the recent victory in state assembly elections, the TMC in what appears to be a meticulously chalked political strategy, has intensified the efforts to make its political presence felt in other states also. As part of a well-thought induction-cum-expansion spree, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee recently met many leaders of opposition in Delhi and Mumbai trying to take them in confidence on the necessity of forming a new political front of opposition against the BJP, excluding the Congress Party. As part of this campaign to create an atmosphere conducive to the creation of a new opposition front, she termed the UPA as non-existent also.

    Senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP of Shiv Sena Sanjay Raut, speaking to this newspaper, said no political front of opposition can succeed in defeating the ruling BJP without the Congress Party as it is only the national party with a political presence in many states.

    “Whatever Mamata Banerjee ji has said as a responsible and respectful politician, would have been her own thoughts or perceptions. The Shiv Sena want all opposition parties together to take on the BJP”, Raut said. He categorically said that two fronts in opposition would not be good for the unity of opposition against the ruling BJP. The Shiv Sena has already made its stand clear through a write–up in its mouthpiece ‘Saamna’  that those who don’t think of going with the Congress-led opposition would be akin to strengthening the BJP and the ‘fascist forces’. “It would be impossible to defeat the BJP without Congress Party and the ShivSena has never thought of it,” he said.

    The RJD, which is one of the bigger allies of Congress-led UPA, echoed the same sentiment upon being asked whether it would like to join, if a new political front of opposition is formed by Mamata Banerjee, excluding Congress Party. “The RJD has more often than not made its stand clear on this issue. We can’t even think of excluding the Congress Part from UPA or going into any new political front of opposition formed without Congress Party”, RJD spokesperson Chitaranjan Gagan.

    He said: “How can one leave the Congress Party in opposition, which gives direct fight to the BJP on 200 Lok Sabha seats in the country? It sounds a bit impossible to an ally of UPA like us”, he said. Earlier, talking to this newspaper RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had also said that Sonia Gandhi was requested by him to call the meeting of all opposition leaders for strengthening opposition unity against the BJP. The NCP, headed by Sharad Pawar, which is power in Maharashtra along with the Congress Party, has already dismissed the idea of forming a new front of opposition sans Congress Party. National spokesperson of NCP Nawab Malik recently told the media that the Congress Party has a Pan-India presence and can be important for the opposition. The NCP leader further stated that no united front of opposition can be formed without Congress Party. 

  • Kolkata municipal polls: Left Front manifesto urges voters to ‘save city from damage’

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of causing “serious damage” to the city’s environment as well as its civic amenities in the past 10 years, the opposition Left Front on Monday urged people “to turn the steering wheel” in its direction during the December 19 Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls.

    The manifesto, which was released during the day, has a colourful layout with poll promises such as shelter for labourers, women empowerment and amenity provisions for third gender written in Bengali.

    CPM leader Sudip Sengupta said, “We, the people of Kolkata, have to swerve left as our vehicle has reached the edge of a steep terrain. If the steering wheel is turned right, we will fall into a deep ditch. To save the city from future damage, people will have to veer the steering wheel to left.”

    Sengupta also said that simple “catchphrases” were used in the manifesto for the ease of understanding of all. The manifesto, resembling a book of illustrations for children, said “We want the rainbow for the full sky, not half (for women and other gender minorities).”

    Another Kolkata district committee member of the CPM said that the KMC board, under the TMC, has set a benchmark for “poor performance”.

    “From filling up waterbodies, flouting environmental norms for building apartments, asking for cut money for civic services to failure to give aid to the poor and the middle-income group, this Kolkata Municipal Corporation has done everything that is detrimental to the city and its people,” he added.

  • Congress leader Kirti Azad to join Trinamool Congress amid Mamata Banerjee’s Delhi visit

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: In what could start poaching accusation debate in two opposition parties, former cricketer and Congress leader Kirti Azad is set to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the national capital in presence of party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee.

    Banerjee, who landed in Delhi on Monday on a four day visit, is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Also on her agenda is meeting with other opposition leaders to discuss strategy for upcoming winter session of parliament and formation of a United Front.

    However, what is considered as a setback for possible alliance, Azad, who joined Congress in 2019 ahead of the general elections, is expected to move on to TMC and his formal joining is likely on Tuesday evening in presence of Mamata. 

    Earlier, Congress women wing chief Sushmita Dev, former Goa Chief Minisyer Luizinho Falerio, former Congress MP and son of president Paranab Mukherjee, Abhijit, and former Congress MLA in UP Lalitjesh Pati Tripathi have joined the TMC. Dev and Falerio have already been elected to Rajya Sabha by the TMC.

    Sources said that the TMC is in touch with leaders from other parties and many are expected to join the party in coming months. “This is all part of party’s move to have national presence with Mamata Banerjee ready to challenge Prime Minister in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It is part of national expansion plan,” said a senior TMC leader. 

    Azad, was suspended by the BJP in 2015 after he accused former Union Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged corruption in Delhi’s cricket body DDCA at a time it was headed by him. He was in the BJP for 26 years and was a three-time parliamentarian from Bihar’s Darbhanga.

    He failed to won in 2019 on a Congress ticket. After joining Congress, he has termed it as a “gharwapsi” (homecoming) as his father Bhagwat Jha Azad was a Congress leader and a former chief minister of Bihar.