By Tirthankar Mitra
KOLKATA: July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally at Sahid Minar in the heart of Kolkata appears to have given West Bengal unit of the Congress a shot in the arm. A footfall much beyond the state Congress leadership’s expectation appears to be the reason of its being upbeat about a brighter political future.
Fact remains despite a court imposed cap of 2500 activists at the rally of Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, the faction drew the largest crowd in July 21 programme near Birla Planetarium. Yet the gathering at Sahid Minar organised by state Congress was impressive to say the least.
Congress activists from different parts of Kolkata and the districts made a beeline for Sahid Minar. The participants were tried to be obstructed at several points by groups alleged to be BJP activists.
The Congress has emerged a poor third given electoral verdict of 2026 Assembly elections in the state. It has only two legislators representing it at the Assembly and has bagged a 2.97 per cent vote share in 2026 Assembly elections.
The organisers of the day’s rally could not arrange for either transport or other help for the rallyists. After all, the Congress has been out of power in West Bengal for nearly five decades.
Nor is the state unit headed by charismatic leaders like ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury or Somen Mitra at whose call the activists would flock to the rally site. Against this backdrop of depleting support base and poor poll results, the call to congregate at Sahid Minar on July 21 had come as a surprise.
It needs to be mentioned that the Martyrs’ Day used to be observed in Bidhan Bhavan, the state Congress headquarters in the previous years. Without mincing words, it was aimed to avoid the embarrassment of thin attendance.
Moreover, few had expected state Congress president Subhankar Sarkar to take a pro-active step of giving the call for an out of door rally. Replacing Adhir Ranjan Choudhury as the state party chief, his choice was a pointer of the national leadership’s intent not to rub Trinamool supremo, Mamata Banerjee the wrong way.
But Sarkar felt emboldened to call an “open rally”, according to state Congress sources. He and other senior leaders had come to know of the enthusiasm of many Congress activists post the split in the Trinamool Congress.
More than the split in the TMC’s ranks at. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, it was breakup of the erstwhile ruling party at the state level which energised the Congress rank and file. The torrent of allegations of corruption faced by some senior TMC leaders was another reason of the Congress activists renewed hope in the political future of an outfit which had almost been written off.
The activists who had come to the Sahid Minar rally on July 21 knew that their leaders had nothing to hide, a senior Congress leader said. This was a key factor on which tested their hope of Congress journeying to the comeback trail, he felt.
It seems that the call to attend the Sahid Minar rally brought out the Congress activists from political hibernation. They came in droves, honouring the memory of the 13 Youth Congress activists who had fallen to police bullets during the march to the Writers’ Buildings on that fateful day in 1993.
If a cutout of Mamata Banerjee on the podium came as a surprise, the state Congress leadership had an explanation handy. There is no denying the fact that as the then state Youth Congress chief, she had led the march, it was stated.
State Congress leadership had so far sidetracked her presence lest it draw the ire of Somen Mitra faction opposing her. Disagreement over the mode of agitation as well as other issues had triggered Banerjee’s decision to float Trinamool Congress.
The call for the Sahid Minar rally had been an endeavour to test the waters. Now the state Congress has given a call for a procession from College Square to Lalbazar on August 5.
The proposed march has received the nod of senior Congress leader KC Venugopal. The state leadership has also been in touch on this issue with Prakash Joshi, observer for the state
This is a pointer to the national leadership of Congress letting the state unit have its way in West Bengal. It may have stopped short of an agitation against TMC, a partner of the INDIA alliance but a BJP run state government is a different proposition against whom no holds are barred.
The procession is being considered to be the launch pad for a bigger agitation in the coming days and there are no dearth of issues, former state chief Pradip Bhattacharya said.
It would be a protest march against BJP state government’s crackdown on protestors and Congress activists in the guise of establishing the rule of law. Nowhere is there any .mention of the allegation of scams against some of the Trinamool leaders.
In other words, the state Congress is trying to flex it’s organisational muscles. A joint programme of agitation with the Trinamool Congress is not yet on the cards.
An united TMC would have spurned such an offer at the state level though it shares INDIA bloc alliance with Congress. But a splintered TMC is unlikely to go for an outright rejection of an invitation of joint agitation as it would be an opportunity to be reckoned as a credible Opposition outfit post poll debacle and desertion at the top leadership level.
But then to hit the street together with Mamata faction of TMC, the state Congress has to demonstrate that it won’t ride piggyback on its agitation partner, Congress sources stated. The August 5 procession will be a pointer to the will and wherewithal read a rising number of activists under the Congress banner indicating that it won’t be an unequal partner in the joint agitation against the first BJP state government in West Bengal. (IPA Service)
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