'Loyal' TMC Complains To Police Against 'Rebel' TMC of Faking Party Symbol, Posts
TMC loyalists inspect the venue at Dharmatala in Kolkata ahead of the July 21 Shaheed Dibos rally, as rival factions intensify their battle for control of the party.
Kolkata: The internal battle between two rival groups to grab power within the Trinamul Congress, the main opposition in West Bengal, has intensified as party supremo Mamata Banerjee's loyalists have lodged two separate complaints with the police against the rebel leaders including their chief Ritabrata Banerjee, accusing them of faking party posts and forging their organisational symbol and misusing it.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen filed the two complaints on Saturday and sought the cops to initiate FIRs based on them. In her complaint at New Town police station under the Bidhannagar City Police, she blamed Mr Banerjee, his deputy Sandipan Saha, Javed Ahmed Khan, Arup Roy and Biplab Mitra for forging the party symbol and letterhead and impersonating themselves as party functionaries.
She also alleged that the five TMC MLAs conducted the fraudulent acts for holding a special session under the party banner at a hotel in New Town on June 22 to form a new leadership which did not include Ms Banerjee and her MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee. In another complaint at Pragati Maidan police station, Ms Sen blamed Mr Khan and Mr Saha for impersonating themselves as party general secretaries.
She further claimed that the duo faked themselves to call all the former party councillors and representatives of the wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to a meeting at Calcutta Boating and Hotel Resorts in Topsia near EM Bypass on Saturday evening. Ritabrata, who is the leader of the opposition, however said, “Anyone can lodge a complaint. There is a law and Election Commission. Let there be faith in them.”
The development comes at a time when both the warring sides have decided to organise their party's annual signature event, Shaheed Dibos rally (Martyr's Day), at Dharmatala in Esplanade on July 21 to pay tribute to the 13 Youth Congress workers who died in police firing in 1993 during the Communist regime. They have also sought permission separately from the Kolkata Police for their events at the same venue in front of Victoria House, the CESC headquarters.
Ms Banerjee, who had addressed the rally as the party chief till last year, faces a peculiar situation this time. On Sunday, TMC loyal camp members visited the area. One of them, Kunal Ghosh, said, “We came here as part of our preparation for the event.” Their rival group member, Sandipan, however asserted that they would also observe the occasion at the same location as the ‘real’ TMC.
