KOLKATA: Days after he resigned from the CPI-M, the party's former state committee member Pratik ur Rahaman joined the ruling Trinamool Congress on Saturday.
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who had won the Lok Sabha elections in Diamond Harbour in the state in 2024 with a margin of more than seven lakh votes in a triangular contest against BJP candidate Abhijit Ghosh and Rahaman, handed over his party flag to the latter at Amtala this afternoon.
On 16 February, Rahaman had sent a letter to the CPI-M state secretary Md Salim tendering his resignation from the primary membership of the party and all organizational portfolios he held in it stating that he was unable to align himself with the leadership's views and strategies on some issues.
Speaking to the media on Saturday, Rahaman said, “I was feeling suffocated staying in CPI-M and I think Trinamool Congress is the only force that can fight against the fascist communal BJP. That is why I joined the ruling party in the state.”
Welcoming him to the Trinamool Congress, Abhishek said, “I have seen Pratik Ur for a long time and he had even contested against me in the last Lok Sabha polls in Diamond Harbour constituency. But he is among those young Turks in the Marxist party who are young, dynamic and principled and can fight against the real danger sponsored by the BJP the whole country is facing. Our fight is against the BJP.”
The Diamond Harbour MP claimed that the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee is the only party that has been fighting against the Election Commission of India (ECI) for its hasty implementation of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state at the behest of the BJP.
“Mamata Banerjee had moved the Supreme Court against the SIR exercise that has claimed so many lives including Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and common citizens because of fear and anxiety over deletion of their names from the voters’ list and workload triggered by the exercise,” he said.
“CPI-M can only be seen only on social media. May I know which ideology prompted the CPI-M state secretary Md Salim to meet Humayun Kabir at a time when they claimed themselves as a secular force?” he said.
“I would also ask other young leaders in CPI-M and other political parties to join us if they want to work for the poor and people in general,” he said.
Sources in the CPI-M said Salim’s recent meeting with Humayun Kabir, suspended Trinamool Congress MLA and chairman of the Janata Unnayan Party (JUP), at a luxurious hotel in New Town, keeping Alimuddin Street virtually in the dark, did not go well with a section of the party including Rahaman.
After forming his new political platform JUP, Kabir had sought an electoral alliance with other political parties to defeat the ruling Trinamool Congress in the assembly polls in Bengal.
Since then Salim faced flak both within the CPI-M-led Left Front and its rivals including the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP in the state, sources said.
During the last Lok Sabha polls in 2024 in Bengal, Kabir had faced strong criticism for making communal statements allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.