Pradip Bhattacharya

May 28: The Congress will choose some of its rural poll candidates in West Midnapore from among the 5,000-odd Trinamul activists who defected today, state party chief Pradip Bhattacharya said.

The Congress leadership’s decision is being perceived by many as an attempt to bank on the “disgruntled” Trinamul workers at the ground level and strengthen the Congress in a district where it does not have a strong base.

“We will choose our party candidates from the 5,000-odd Trinamul activists who joined us today,” Bhattacharya said in Calcutta.

“Trinamul workers are welcome to join our party. They will be rehabilitated and some of them will be made Congress candidates for the rural polls.”

About 5,000 Trinamul activists from the Pingla block of West Midnapore today joined the Congress at the party’s state headquarters in Bidhan Bhavan to protest what they called “lack of democracy” in the ruling party.

Trinamul’s Pingla block president, Gour Gharai, and the party’s minority cell chief, Mohammed Mohsin, were among those who defected today.

“There is no democracy in Trinamul. That is why we have decided to defect to the Congress,” Gharia told journalists at Bidhan Bhavan.

The West Midnapore Trinamul said the workers were expelled on disciplinary grounds.

The Congress is organisationally weaker in the district with only two MLAs from Kharagpur and Sabang. While Trinamul has nine legislators, the Left is a bigger force than the two with 19.

“Against the backdrop, the Congress is in a bid to rope in our disgruntled activists at the ground level. It wants to strengthen the organisation before the panchayat polls,” said a Trinamul district secretary.

Asked about the defection, the Trinamul leader said: “We have nothing much to say. Those who joined the Congress were expelled from Trinamul on charges of anti-party activities and lack of discipline.”

Gharai also accused Trinamul of sidelining them as they protested the “prevailing corruption among a section of Trinamul leaders at the helm”.

Although most Congress leaders remained tight-lipped about the leadership’s decision saying it was taken by the party chief, some said the move would cause resentment in the organisation.

“The PCC chief should have the last say on the choice of Congress nominees. But ground-level Congress activists would resent the decision because it would stand in the way of their becoming party nominees for the rural polls,” said a Congress leader in the district who did not want to be named.

Defect hint

Mainul Haque, a four-time Congress MLA from Farakka, has said he is not happy with Murshidabad strongman Adhir Chowdhury not removing the block president and hinted that he might change allegiance.