Shankar Malakar, the veteran Congress leader who had recently joined the Trinamool Congress, returned to Siliguri on Friday. But no prominent faces of Trinamool went to receive him at Bagdogra airport.
“I would love to remain with the party workers. It is good to see that many of my old party colleagues, who had left the Congress and joined Trinamool earlier, have come to receive me at the airport, which is a feeling like homecoming for me,” Malakar told newspersons on the airport premises on Friday afternoon.
Nearly 1,000 supporters assembled outside the airport to welcome the newly entrant into Trinamool. But significantly, no prominent faces, who led the organisational functions in the subdivision, were present to receive him.
Papiya Ghosh, the president of Trinamool’s Darjeeling district committee (plains), has assigned a nine-member delegation of Trinamool’s district committee leader to receive Malakar, said sources.
Among those who were present at the airport were Kajal Ghosh, the president of Phansidewa-II block, and Dipak Shil, one of the general secretaries of the district unit, who were among the known faces.
Dilip Barman, a member of, mayor-in-council of Siliguri Municipal Corporation, who has recently feuded with mayor Gautam Deb, was also present at Bagdogra.
The Congress leadership from the Darjeeling district committee said that once a loyal to Congress’ Gandhi family, Malakar lost its political relevance after such defection because no one else from Congress switched to Trinamool with him.
“If somebody shifted his loyalty to another political organisation with some personal interest, we have nothing to comment on it. But nobody from our party workers has switched with him to Trinamool,” Subin Bhowmik, the newly-appointed convener of Darjeeling district Congress.
As questions were raised over the absence of prominent faces of TMC at the airport, district Trinamool leaders said they have planned to felicitate Malakar at the district party office in Siliguri on Saturday.
“We have organised a felicitation programme for him (Malakar) at the district party office here tomorrow afternoon,” Ghosh said.