By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: Competing for attendance of followers, three rallies held on July 21, the Martyr’s Day sprang surprises for the organisers. Notwithstanding desertion, internal squabbles coupled with snowballing of corruption charges, the Trinamool Congress rally led by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee near Birla Planetarium drew the largest crowd putting in the shade the meeting organised by rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee.
Strangely enough, the TMC rally addressed by party supremo Mamata Banerjee had competition from an unlikely source. Out of power in West Bengal for nearly five decades, the state Congress rally organised near Sahid Minar area had a remarkably high attendance.
Both the rallies, the one near the planetarium and the one of Congress in the vicinity of Sahid Minar were a sea of dark heads. But many empty chairs spread over a considerable stretch near Gandhi statue on Mayo Road were addressed by rebel leaders.
In so many words, the three rallies were eye openers. It laid bare the shifting political ground within the Trinamool Congress and another outfit which had almost been politically written off, the Congress.
None of them are in power and unable to provide either transport or a resources of a ruling party to their followers. Yet the faction loyal to Mamata Banerjee drew the biggest crowd while the rival TMC faction struggled to mobilise support.
The reason being TMC foot soldiers still associate Martyr’ Day and their party with the former chief minister. She continues to be to be their one and only supremo.
While addressing the rally, the Trinamool chief showed that she has her finger right on the national issues as well the reason why some of her party leaders have switched sides. “I want all the INDIA bloc partners in the state to come together and join the BJP hatao programme’ she said.
As for her party colleagues who have gone over to the rival faction she said that their departure is a ploy to duck the attention of the central probe agencies like ED and CBI into their affairs and that of their family members.
The defection of Kamarhati Trinamool MLA, Madan Mitra is a case in point. Mitra, a Banerjee loyalist till the other day, switched post ED serving notices to his wife and sons.
Banerjee has wished these deserters well. She also called upon them to ensure the welfare of their family members thereby making it clear in a sarcastic tenor that personal considerations and not ideological ones prompted the changing of sides.
The July 21 Martyr’s Day rally this year was one like never before. First, three rallies were taken out on the occasion, two by warring factions of the TMC and the third by Congress.
All the three rallies were meant to get an estimate of the organisational strength of three political outfits who had organised them. After all, the municipal elections are round the corner.
The Congress gathering near Sahid Minar was massive. Its turnout was bigger than the rival Trinamool faction.
And the size of the crowd happens to be a principal determinant in chalking the civic polls game plan. Once the participants, tired and dusty have left the rally site, the leaders would be in brainstorming sessions.
The Assembly segments from where each of the group of participants had come to rally would be identified. So would be their leaders.
Senior leadership of the party would decide thereafter where to field candidates. The weak spots read the places where from not too many rallyists had trooped in would be allotted for the allies to contest.
The occasion remembering the 13 martyrs who fell to police bullets during a march to Writers’ Buildings on July 21, 1993 turned out to be a moment of headcount in 2026. To be more precise it was a .moment for political stock taking.
The Trinamool faction loyal to Mamata Banerjee may not have too many leaders as most of them have switched over to the NCPI at the Centre and Ritabrata faction at the state level. But July 21, 2026 rally of Mamata Banerjee loyalists is a pointer that she is the Opposition leader with maximum following in West Bengal.
The ground below her feet read the public support has not slipped away with TMC’s electoral debacle. The presence of the large crowd at the planetarium rally which spilled over to the adjacent Maidan is a pointer to it.
The political existence of Mamata Banerjee centres round the Trinamool Congress. And if Tuesday’s turnout is anything to go by, TMC is yet to be reduced to state panchayat minister, Dilip Ghosh’s prediction of it becoming a “Pishi bhaipor party” ( a political party of only the aunt and the nephew) alluding to Mamata and Abhishek.
State Congress being able to muster a sizeable crowd certainly larger than the one at the Ritabrata faction ‘s rally is a significant development of the day. It is a pointer that it’s factions have closed ranks and did not let any of the TMC rallies be a cake walk.
Post electoral drubbing, Mamata Banerjee is a chastened individual. Sans her hubris, she will now be a much more reasonable leader in the anti-BJP INDIA bloc.
It would be easier for the Congress to coexist with her in the INDIA alliance. There ought to be little reason for surprise, if Trinamool and Congress take on BJP in West Bengal, in the coming local polls as also in the by polls. (IPA Service)
