: In the last couple of weeks, cadres of Trinamool Congress (TMC) have been religiously targeting their own party colleagues and ordinary citizens. The trend is alarmingly growing in Kolkata and West Bengal. Observers feel that the lack of a robust rival is pushing the TMC cadres to target their own colleagues.
Late last week, three supporters of the ruling party were killed at Khandaghosh area of the Bardhaman district in what was considered be a clash over area domination among the party workers.
But that is just the tip of the ice-berg. Across the State, TMC’s mid-level leaders and cadres are fighting with each other, in the absence of any Opposition.
Reports of intra-party feud are surfacing almost on a daily basis and the in-fighting is seriously disturbing Mamata Banerjee. “She is concerned about the regular attacks (on party colleagues) by party leaders and has issued warnings on several occasions,” said a senior leader of the party from South 24 Parganas district on condition of anonymity.
The feud — as explained by the leader — is a result of multiple TMC factions, predominantly driven by local-level goons and land mafias in the same area.
“In our area (Bhangar), we have the Nannu Hossain gang, Kaisar Hossain gang, Ohidul gang, and last but not the least the great Arabul Islam gang, who was very fond of me,” the leader said. These gangs were ritualistically after each other, mostly to grab local private and vested land.
“The TMC itself can only be blamed for this situation as it has used coercion and force to make the State opposition-free. Now, due to lack of a rival they are creating their own rivals inside the party,” said professor of Political Science, Biswanath Chakravarty. Large-scale unemployment across the State was cited as one of the reasons of growing hooliganism inside the ruling party.
Attack on civilians
Whenever Chief Minister’s men are not targeting their friends and colleagues, they are going after the ordinary citizens.
On Monday, a doctor and his wife were badly thrashed in public view in Sonarpur area, just on the fringe of Kolkata. The doctor, Prasenjit Biswas and his wife suffered several injuries and alleged that they were beaten as they refused to cough up money.
“Our crime was that we were trying to raise a house on our land,” the doctor said. On the same day an employee of Jadavpur University Urmi Rupa Pal and her father were beaten in Bardhhaman district for filing an RTI application questioning the alleged illegal construction by TMC’s local leaders.
Commenting on the growing lawlessness, Congress leader Abdul Mannan said that “political clashes are not new to Bengal but what has happened over the past few years is unprecedented.”
‘The feud is a result of multiple TMC factions, predominantly driven
by local-level goons
and land mafias in the same area’
