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Adhikari is peeved at the talks that all have been sorted out- conveys ‘difficult to work with the party anymore’

Adhikari

Suvendu Adhikari, heavyweight in TMC is miffed with the senior TMC leaders for divulging the details of the meeting in the media and claiming that all differences with him had been sorted out.

People close to the rebellious leader said on Wednesday, a day after negotiation talks, that the impasse between the disgruntled TMC leader and West Bengal’s ruling party is not over yet.

They also said that Adhikari, an influential leader with a mass base has conveyed to the TMC leadership that it is “difficult for him to work with the party anymore”.

On Tuesday, Adhikari, who recently stepped down from the state minister’s post, had held a high-level meeting with TMC MPs Abhishek Banerjee, Sougata Roy and Sudip Bandopadhyay and election strategist Prashant Kishor.

The rebel leader did not want the details of what transpired at the back-channel talks to be leaked to the media.

‘Claim of patch-up with TMC leadership is false‘

Sources close to Adhikari said that the TMC leadership’s claim of a patch-up with the MLA was “false” and that he is unpacified as his grievances have not been addressed yet.

The leader has informed the party leadership that “it will be tough for him to work together with the party as its leaders had gone to the media making false claims without the problems raised by him getting resolved and without giving him a chance to speak”.

After Adhikari’s dismay over TMC’s rapprochement claim, senior party leader and Lok Sabha MP Sougata Roy said,” Whatever I had stated on Tuesday night was the truth about the outcome of the meeting. Now, if Suvendu has changed his position, it is for him to clarify. I have nothing more to say.”

When asked about a possibility of another round of meeting with the sulking leader, Sougata Roy said that the party is unlikely to initiate fresh talks with Suvendu.

Several attempts to bring him back

Adhikari’s resignation from the Mamata Banerjee cabinet last week came as a big blow for the TMC which has been trying to pacify the disgruntled leader through several rounds of back-channel talks.

Adhikari’s close aid said that the MLA was upset that Roy disclosed the details of the meeting in media on Tuesday night days ahead of a press conference scheduled for December 6.

“Suvendu da had sought some time after the meeting to express his views. But some party leaders tried to paint a different picture altogether. He did not like it. And now everything has reached a dead end,” the leader close to Adhikari said.

Adhikari resigned as Minister of Transport, Irrigation and Waterways on Friday amid reports of differences with the party leadership, triggering speculation that he may quit the ruling TMC ahead of the next year’s Assembly polls.

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Oxford Union debate in which West Bengal CM is an invited speaker cancelled at the last minute-request has been made for postponing

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was scheduled to speak at The Oxford Union Debate on Wednesday. The address was to be held virtually, as per West Bengal Secretariat sources. However, it has now emerged that Mamata’s address at the debate has been cancelled. The Oxford Union has sought to postpone it. In the debate, the CM had planned to speak about the schemes of the state government like ‘Kanyashree’, ‘Rupasree’, ‘Krishak Bandhu’ and ‘Duare Bangla’.

The West Bengal home department tweeted about the cancellation a few minutes before the chief minister was supposed to deliver the address. The tweet by the state Home Department read, “While Hon’ ble Chief Minister of West Bengal,  Mamata Banerjee, was scheduled to address the Oxford Union debating society today afternoon, the organizers have suddenly sought postponement and re-scheduling of the programme at the last moment. The request has been made telephonically from the organizers’ end, citing some unforeseen problems, a brief while ago. The programme with Oxford Union today stands cancelled.”

Bengal CM Mamata’s address would have been the first by an Indian woman chief minister at the prestigious event. It was scheduled at around 2:30 pm, but the organizers at around 1.50 pm requested that the programme be rescheduled, stating that “nothing prevails over circumstances sometimes”.

“Banerjee, who became the first Indian woman CM to be invited to address the debate, had received the invitation from the Oxford Union in July,” said an official. Mamata Banerjee, in the same month, had accepted the invitation from the Oxford Union. The official also added, “She will be answering questions from students during the debate, and has already received 600 online queries.” The Union encourages students to write online and submit their Questions by December 1, and subsequently, only a few selected Questions were sent to Banerjee, which she would answer in her speech. Basically, Mamta Banerjee will highlight some of the projects of the state government.  In 2010, when Banerjee was the railway minister, she had received an invitation from Cambridge University to deliver a lecture, but she had declined the invite at that time.

The Oxford Union was founded as a debating society in the early 19th century (1823). The Union has hosted several world leaders and luminaries as speakers, including US presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Regan, British prime-minister Winston Churchill , and Margaret Thatcher. Speakers also include eminent personalities like the Dalai Lama, Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, and Mother Teresa who had participated in debates. A few years back, Dr. Shashi Tharoor from Indian National Congress had participated in the Oxford Union debate, arguing in favour of reparations to be paid by colonizing powers, which had attracted a lot of appreciation from around the world.

After deciding to invite the CM, the union had sent a letter to Goutam Sanyal, principal secretary to the chief minister. “I sincerely hope that the Hon’ble Chief Minister will understand, and might honour us with her esteemed presence at the earliest possible convenience to you. With your permission, I will pass your details onto my successor, to whom I hand over this Friday,” Beatrice Barr, president of the OU wrote in her letter to Sanyal.

The author is a student member of Amity center of Happiness

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Mamata Banerjee accused the centre of using PMCARES fund to demolish federal structures

Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal on Tuesday accused the central government of using central agencies to destroy and demolish the federal nature and associated structures in the country. Banerjee sought to know where is the money of Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund. She said that her government in Kolkata, would not work as per whims and fancies of the BJP-led regime at the Centre.

Ms Banerjee asked rhetorically where all the money has gone and why no audit was done. She came down hard on the GOI by asking what the centre has given to states to counter the Covid19 pandemic.

Charging the Centre with targeting West Bengal as elections are approaching in the state in 2021, the Trinamool Congress supremo claimed that law and order situation is better in the state than many other states of the country. She said, “The Centre is using agencies to bulldoze and threaten us. We are not afraid of them. They (BJP) are not a political party but garbage of lies.”

Elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly are due in April-May next year.

With regards to the on-going farmers’ protest in north India, she claimed that no other political party supported the BJP on the issue of farm laws but the saffron party is adamant on bulldozing the protest.

Recently, with respect to the upcoming state polls, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) faction’s Roshan Giri had said that they will back chief minister Mamata Banerjee who he said unlike the faction’s former ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “keeps her promises.”

Giri, general secretary of the faction headed by Bimal Gurung, alleged that the BJP cheated their faction and did not live up to any of its promises during their association from 2009 to 2020. He affirmed that the BJP would be defeated in the state polls next year.

The author is a student member of amity centre of happiness

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Mamata Banerjee on the field campaigning for polls 2021, says Bengal does not bow to money

polls 2021

After an interval of eight months, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is back in the campaign battlefield for the upcoming state polls.

Bengal CM Banerjee picked Bankura as the venue of her first public rally after the pandemic triggered disruptions and lockdown. This is most likely due to Union Home Minister’s massive outreach in the same turf barely 20 days ago when the saffron party tried to reach out to the tribals. The schedule of the CM was preponed as she took a chopper with TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee.

TMC is now gearing up for the state polls of 2021 where its main opposition and challenge is BJP. Bankura contributes two Lok Sabha seats, both won by the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections only a year ago. As per votes polled, TMC is lagging behind in at least 14 Vidhan Sabha seats which take the Bankura district high on the priority list given its tribal & backward caste composition.

Banerjee speaking to her party cadres reminded them that TMC stands for grassroots & that is what has built its base, the workers. She also asserted that she is monitoring every party activity at each level, further stressing that she is the ‘main observer’ of every maneuver in the party.

Political strategist Prashant Kishor’s teams have been camping in every Vidhan Sabha constituency since months now, keeping every MLA’s details and submitting their reports.

Banerjee said, “The group (IPAC) is helping me. If anything happens in your area, I am the only “observer” not as a leader but as a worker.”

She further added, “There has been a systematic change in Trinamool Congress since its tie-up with IPAC which has irked few leaders within the party & the most recent one being sitting TMC MLA Mihir Goswami who has claimed, that the ‘reins of the party’ are no longer in Mamata’s hands.”

It must be noted that the Bengal CM has been engaged with steep administrative work due to the cyclone & pandemic’s twin attack in the state but now with barely a few months left for her biggest challenge, she has returned to steer ahead the party. She exclaimed, “I will work for the people, and for this party till I am alive.”

Banerjee further instructed her party workers over monitoring and surveillance, “There are few grabby, even though very few in numbers, I am asking all my workers to keep an eye. Who is visiting homes at 02:00 am; who is talking over the phones late at night. Keep all the information. Keep information about those taking their cars out late at night without reason for work.”

Without naming BJP, the CM continued, “those who want to buy Bengal with money, should know that Bengal does not bow before money”. It is perhaps in anticipation of horse-trading before the upcoming polls, a situation witnessed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka during the state polls.

The differences between West Bengal Minister Suvendu Adhikari and TMC are out in the open when he took out a separate rally from the party in Nandigram. Being a popular face in “jangalmahal” he has remained absent from the CM’s Bankura tour while carrying on his schedule elsewhere. Recently, Dilip Ghosh, had tried to pull Chatradhar Mahato from TMC into BJP, which makes the presence of Mamata Banerjee in the campaigning all the more demanding.

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Mamata Banerjee pinpoints the major fallacy in the new farm laws passed by the parliament

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee has claimed that the new farm laws enacted by the Centre have led to black-marketing of potatoes and onions, causing a sharp rise in prices of the commodities.

Ms. Banerjee said that she has written to the PM that the Centre should ensure that there is no black-marketing of these items or provide the necessary power to states to tackle the problem.

The CM said at an administrative meeting, “The central government has made destructive farm laws leading to blackmarketing of essential food items like potato and onion.”

The Trinamool Congress supremo further added, “Earlier we used to keep a check on prices of these essential food items but the central acts have robbed the states of their powers. This has caused losses to farmers as well as consumers.”

Alleging that the central government has looted everything from farmers through the acts, the chief minister said that the prices of potatoes are increasing at an alarming rate. The Bengal CM further said that the state government should not be blamed for the high prices of items like potato or onion, which were earlier in the list of essential commodities.

The Centre in September had enacted the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, which removed cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oil, onions, and potatoes from the list.

“The Centre has made such an act that it (pricing) has gone into the hands of blackmarketeers,” Ms. Banerjee said. She also added that the West Bengal government is still selling potatoes at ₹ 25 per kg from its ‘Sufal Bangla’ outlets with the stock that it had procured earlier.

The author is a student member of amity centre of happiness

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Mamata Banerjee takes jibe at the home minister’s trip to Bankura-refers to central government as Aloo ki sarkar

Mamata

West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee lambasted the latest trip of home minister to Bankura to the house of a tribal. She called the trip a show-off alleging that the lunch eaten by the Home minister in the house of the tribals in Chaturthi village, was cooked by a Brahmin cook somewhere else. She also took a jibe at Amit shah stating that he did not even know who actually was Birsa munda and that he garlanded a wrong statue. Additionally, the CM stated that the Bengal government would celebrate Munda’s birthday by declaring it a holiday.

The CM addressed a state government function in Khatra area of Bankura district and castigated the home minister for ignoring a child in the region who was suffering from Thalasemia. In an attempt to connect with the tribals, the CM stated that the Ma, Mati, Manush workers (TMC cadres) would install a statue of Birsa Munda in that region.

Banerjee also criticized the central government over the amendment of the Essential Commodities Act and termed the central government as Aloo ki sarkar, which has caused the removal of potatoes and onions from the ECA list causing a problematic rise in their prices.

In a parallel development, the CM recently asked the GOI when the Covid19 vaccine will be delivered, to which the centre has given confounding answers including comments that neither the doses nor the prices have been decided upon.

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Shock to AIMIM as Bengal unit chief-Anwar Pasha jumps boat to TMC praising Mamata Banerjee

Anwar Pasha jumps boat to TMC praising Mamata Banerjee

In what came as a jolt to Owaisi’s AIMIM, West Bengal unit chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM), Anwar Pasha along with some of his colleagues joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday. Anwar claimed that the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party was only acting as a polarizer of votes which would help the BJP in the upcoming Bengal election.

Alleging that a few people are trying to steer the country towards destruction using religion, Pasha said that those who are eyeing Bengal at present, whether “wearing saffron or green”, should know that there is no place for creating religious divisions in the state. He added, “AIMIM has played a hand in the polarization of votes in Bihar and thus helped the BJP in forming the government there, but this will not happen in Bengal.”

Anwar was welcomed to the TMC fold by ministers Bratya Basu and Moloy Ghatak. He said that 30 percent of West Bengal’s population is composed of Muslims and also stressed that the political developments in Bihar cannot be allowed to be emulated in Bengal. He asserted that it is essential to stop these divisive forces. He also added, “There have been developments in Bihar and these forces are trying to now enter Bengal. For years now, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christians have been living here in peace but there is an attempt to create a divide and use votes to make inroads here.”

Urging Muslims in the state to stand by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he said that AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi should not come to Bengal.

Owaisi had said on Sunday that his party is deliberating to contest the West Bengal assembly elections due next year.

Mamata is the only CM to raise voice against CAA & NRC

Heaping praises on Mamata Banerjee, Anwar said that she was the only CM to raise voice against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NRC. He also said that people and political parties accuse her of running appeasement politics but this is not true because if she gives money to the imams then she also gives it to the priests. This statement of Anwar likely came as a response to the recent opinion expressed by ex Supreme Court judge Markandeya Katju, that some policies of Mamata Banerjee, like giving ex-gratia to imams, might hamper her prospects in the Bengal polls 2021.

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Mamata Banerjee requests in a letter to PM to declare January 23 as national holiday and find out the truth behind the disappearance of Netaji

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee had recently sent a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting to declare January 23rd as a national holiday to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

In addition to this, Banerjee has also urged the PM in her letter to take appropriate and decisive steps to find out what happened to Netaji and declare it in public domain in the larger interest of the nation. The letter described how people celebrate the birth anniversary of Netaji nationwide with ‘dignity’ and ‘reverence’ every year which is why it should be declared a national holiday to pay respect to the freedom fighter.

The request is not new, as Banerjee had been requesting the Central government for a long time regarding the same issue but failed to receive any response so far. She describes Netaji as a national leader and one of the ‘Greatest sons of Bengal’ who emerged as a national icon during India’s freedom movement against the Britishers. She mentioned that January 23, 2022, marks the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji and would be the perfect occasion to give him the appropriate recognition and respect he deserves as an ‘epitome of leadership, courage, unity, and love for his motherland.’

Apart from this, Banerjee, in the letter had also expressed her views on the disappearance of the national leader and the mystery surrounding his death. She also added in her letter that people, especially the people of Bengal, deserve to know what really happened to Netaji. Hence, she demands the Central government to take decisive steps in solving the mystery behind his disappearance and unraveling the truth.

She concluded by summarizing her two important requests of declaring January 23rd as a national holiday and finding out what happened with Netaji surrounding the mystery of his disappearance in 1945.

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One place, one party, two rallies: TMC and Suvendu Adhikari

Suvendu Adhikari

There is a simmering conflict, or rather a sub-surface tension between West Bengal transport minister Suvendu Adhikari and the ruling dispensation in the state-TMC. Adhikari had recently taken a dig at party colleagues for visiting Nandigram after a gap of 13 years just before the 2021 state polls.

This had evoked a sharp response from the TMC which hit back at Adhikari allegedly for “helping BJP” by negating the contributions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the anti-land acquisition movement.

Indignation of TMC was exacerbated as Adhikari, who is one of the most influential members of the party did not once mention Banerjee or the party during a rally held by him to pay respect to martyrs of Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (Land Eviction Resistance Committee) on ‘Nandigram Dibas’. It was on this particular day in 2007 that some BUPC members were killed in police firing.

Mamata Banerjee buoyed by the crest of the wave of the anti-farmland acquisition movement, had succeeded in dislodging the 34-year-long rule of the Left Front in the state in 2011.

In this context, there have been rumours that Adhikari might leave TMC and join BJP as he had held a separate rally in Nandigram independent from the TMC rally.

TMC MP from Serampore, Hooghly, Kalyan Banerjee had said that the transport minister Adhikari was very much with the ruling party. He added, “There is no question of Suvendu not being with our party. He is very much with the TMC. He is a bright leader, who can be an asset to any political party. Some people are trying to mislead the people about his future prospects”.

Hinting at the possibility of Adhikari leaving the ruling party, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “TMC is like a cabbage. One by one its leaves are coming off. Once all leaves come off then there will be no cabbage.”

State Congress president and the party’s Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee must remember Adhikari’s contribution to her rise to power. Chowdhury added, “Singur and Nandigram movements were crucial in shaping what TMC is today. In Nandigram, the Adhikari family played the most important role. But today no one is remembering their valuable contributions”.

Adhikari and TMC senior leader and state minister Firhad Hakim who had addressed two different rallies at Nandigram, on the same day, took potshots at each other without taking any names. Hakim and another TMC MP Dola Sen blamed Adhikari without naming him, for strengthening the “hands of the BJP”.

Adhikari, who has been maintaining a distance from TMC’s top leadership for the last few months, said that he will never use the BUPC platform for “vested political interests” and will announce his next course of action from a political platform.

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Preparation begins for Bengal election 2021- TMC provides job while BJP comes for lunch

When India is witnessing the three-phase election for Bihar assembly, Home Minister, Amit Shah is busy executing ‘Mission Bengal’. The BJP is hoping to wrest power and control over Bengal from Mamata Banerjee in the next year’s Vidhan Sabha elections.

In this context, the Matua community has once again come under the limelight. Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee made several big announcements for the tribal communities recently. The state government entrusted the right of land to 25 thousand refugee families and said that 1.25 lakh families would benefit from it. The CM had allocated Rs 10 crore for Matua Development Board and Rs 5 crore for Namasudra Development Board.

From the side of BJP, Amit Shah recently paid a visit to a Matua household in Bankura and had his lunch there. Before reaching the residence of Nabin Biswas, a member of the community, Shah went to a temple of the Matuas in the locality where he spent some time. Accompanied by BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvergiya, BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and state party chief Dilip Ghosh, Shah had his lunch sitting on the floor of Nabin Biswas’ two-storied house at Gauranganagar area.

This trip under Shah’s tribal outreach programme in Bankura district brought good luck to a tribal woman in another part of the state.  Geeta Mahali, who had hosted Shah three years back at her home in Naxalbari village, received an appointment letter from West Bengal government’s home department on Thursday for working as Special Home Guard. TV grabs showed a teary-eyed Geeta shyly showing her appointment letter to media persons who landed at her home after they were alerted by the local TMC leadership. After Shah had lunch at the house of the tribal couple-Raju and Geeta Mahali in a much-publicized event, the state’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) had managed to persuade the duo to join TMC. This turnaround had caused much embarrassment to the BJP and Shah who was then president of the party.

This provision of job comes tactically at a time when Shah had arrived in a Matua household for lunch in order to coax the community. A delegation of the Trinamool Congress headed by its Darjeeling district president Ranjan Sarkar went to the house of Raju and Gita Mahali, the tribal couple in Katiyajote of Nakshalbari, which is 35 km away from Siliguri. They announced the appointment of Mahali as a home guard. Sarkar claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had given “false assurances”, ‘a castle in the air’ stories, and alleged that no one came to the couple from the “saffron party” during the time of the mismanaged lockdown.

The author is a student of Amity centre of Happiness