'Insulted by elements in party': Activist-turned-Trinamool MLA writes to Mamata

KOLKATA: Dalit activist-turned-Trinamool Congress MLA Manoranjan Byapari has kicked up a fresh storm by alleging in a Facebook post that he was being continuously insulted "by four-five elements" of the party and said that he wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking her intervention.

While the TMC leadership said Byapari, also an exponent of Dalit literature, should not have gone public with his grievances, the BJP said he is welcome to join the saffron party.

In another post around a month back, the first-time MLA had vented his frustration saying he might have made a mistake by joining active politics.

"Don't be angry with me for not getting Duare Bidhayak (MLA on your doorstep) service. Be infuriated with those - four/five elements - who are continuously spreading canards against your representative whom you have given a huge mandate amid a massive campaign by the BJP," Byapari said in the new post addressing the people of his Balagarh constituency in Hooghly district.

Efforts are on to derail the services people get in a planned manner, he claimed in the post uploaded on Tuesday.

Asked what prompted him to make such comments, Byapari told reporters on Wednesday, "Some elements who did not allow many voters to cast votes in 2018 Panchayat polls using guns and muscle-power are still active in the party organisation in my constituency."

They don't want that the state government's social welfare projects "initiated by our leader Mamata Banerjee" to reach the needy, he claimed in the post.

Byapari said he has sent a letter to Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, drawing her attention to the issue.

"We must be careful in inducting people as some will do the TMC more harm than good," he said without naming anyone.

Reacting to Byapari's post, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said that he should have discussed the issue in the party's forums without going public.

"He is a writer, a creative person. He might have hurt for something. But he should have discussed his grievances within the district unit, within the state unit. He didn't do that and instead, went public and wrote to the party supremo. This is not done," Chatterjee added.

BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu said that if Byapari finds himself suffocated within the TMC, he will find breathing space in the saffron party.

The MLA who had in the past worked as a rickshaw-puller and tea seller to make ends meet, said in a post on July four: "So many people out there are distressed and sad. They assume I have a magic wand. Alas, I don't."