Congress leaders in West Bengal who have openly expressed dissatisfaction over the seat-sharing arrangement with the Trinamool Congress were unfazed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's warning that any leader defying the party line and contesting as an Independent candidate will be removed from the party for six years.
“There is no question of withdrawing my decision of contesting the coming elections. The decision to contest was not taken by me, it was the decision of the voters and supporters of the Congress in the constituency,” Ram Pyare Ram, six-time MLA from the former Kabitirtha constituency in the city told The Hindu on Monday.
“I will file my nomination papers in a few days time,” Mr. Ram asserted. He has announced that he will be contesting the Kolkata Port seat, formed from some of the areas that fell within Kabitirtha before delimitation.
Another MLA follows suit
Abdul Khalek Mollah, the sitting MLA for Garden Reach, also refused to back down despite Mr. Mukherjee's warning.
“When the party denied me a ticket, it was as good as throwing me out. I have been a loyal Congress worker for 50 years and had managed to wrest the seat from the then Labour Minister Mohd. Amin,” Mr. Mollah said.
Both candidates made veiled references about the fact that Mr. Mukherjee himself had left the Congress and floated a different political party when he had been edged out of the Union Cabinet after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Mr. Mukherjee's party had subsequently merged with the Congress.
MP defiant
Berhampore MP, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has declared that he will extend support to independent candidates in the four Assembly constituencies within Murshidabad district that the Trinamool Congress has claimed, maintained his stand.
“I have always maintained that the only aim is to ensure the defeat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). If Independent candidates have to be supported to achieve this, then we will do so,” Mr. Chowdhury said.
Mr. Chowdhury said that the future of the Congress leaders, who chose to contest as Independent candidates within the party, will be decided by the party's leadership and “that will take its own course.”
