KOLKATA: The TMC's defeat in the West Bengal by-election is being seen by the ruling party as a warning sign ahead of panchayat elections. TMC MP Aparupa Poddar, though has gone even further, attributing corruption within the party as the reason for the debacle in Sagardighi Assembly by-polls in Murshidabad.
In a social media post, Aparupa, the lawmaker from Arambag in Hooghly, stated that some of the prominent leaders’ misdeeds had led to the party’s downfall in the minority-dominated Assembly seat which the TMC bagged for three straight terms.
"Because of the misdeeds of some of the heavyweight leaders, we have been shown a red card and pushed outside the ground. In Sagardighi, we lost due to the malpractices of a section of the leaders of our party," she mentioned in her post.
The MP’s analysis comes at a time when the TMC was facing serious corruption charges that landed several party leaders and former government functionaries, which include former education minister Partha Chatterjee and party’s strongman and Birbhum unit chief Anubrata Mondal. Chatterjee was slapped with the charges of irregularities in recruitment in schools and Mondal was charged with cattle smuggling charges.
"The defeat was a major blow to our party before the rural polls. Our party is facing corruption charges in different sectors, ranging from education, the 100-day job scheme, and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The corruption in the education department seems to have caused major damage as thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff recruited during Chatterjee’s tenure have already been sacked by the Calcutta High Court. Besides, our party functionaries are facing the ire of poor people who were deprived of their right to get houses under the Centre’s scheme," said a senior TMC leader.
The TMC was defeated by Congress-Left alliance candidate with a margin of 22,986 votes in the Assembly where minorities form 58 per cent of the total electorates. When the Congress and Left Front failed to send a single representative in the 2021 Assembly polls, this time the grand old party is sending its first MLA in the 294-seat House.
"The debacle in a minority-dominated seat, where we won three consecutive terms, is a warning message before the panchayat polls. People’s anger were reflected in the poll verdict. A couple of months to go to the rural polls which are not enough to control the damage," said another TMC leader.