Chattopadhyay at DPL on Saturday. Picture by Arup Sarkar

Durgapur, June 14: Veteran Trinamul labour leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay today urged his rival trade union faction at Durgapur Projects Ltd (DPL) to “unite” with the unit he heads at the power utility.

Chattopadhyay iterated at a media conference at the DPL guesthouse in Durgapur town that the DPL Employees’ Association, the union he heads and one that is affiliated to Trinamul labour arm INTTUC, was the “original” union at the utility.

He had made the same claim in a letter he to DPL on June 2. In the letter, he had requested the DPL authorities to deal with his union.

The Durgapur Projects Workers’ Association, another INTTUC-affiliated union led by a loyalist of state Trinamul trade union chief Dola Sen, rules the roost at DPL. Chattopadhyay’s union has been lying defunct since the Durgapur Projects Workers’ Association was set up in 2009.

“I had formed the DPL Employees’ Association in 1998. Then the situation was not in favour of us and we had to face many odds. I came here today to meet my union functionaries. I appeal to the other INTTUC faction here to unite with my union. If we come together, it will boost our bargaining power,” said Chattopadhyay, a Trinamul trade union advisory committee member.

He said he had spoken to Malay Ghatak, a former minister who is the working president of the Durgapur Projects Workers’ Association, “in the Assembly two days ago and advised him to merge the union with mine”.

Ghatak, Trinamul sources said, was close to Dola but their relations have been strained since the state INTTUC chief lost the election to the Asansol Lok Sabha seat. The Durgapur Projects Workers’ Association was set up by Dola loyalist Debdas Majumder, the general secretary of the union, and Ghatak.

Asked about the union Dola’s backers led at DPL, Chattopadhyay said at the media conference: “I don’t want to comment on anybody in particular, but I must say that a trade union or political leader must be honest.”

Dola refused comment on what Chattopadhyay said today. “I never comment on Sobhanda or such matters. I have no idea about what he has said,” said Dola, who succeeded Chattopadhyay as state INTTUC chief.