Raiganj, March 1: The Trinamul Congress has only one candidate for the Assembly elections and that is Mamata Banerjee, party MP Subhendu Adhikari told a workers’ meeting in North Dinajpur’s Itahar today.
Adhikari, who was addressing the party workers at Itahar High School, advised them to avoid faction fights during the filing of nominations of candidates.
The comments came against the backdrop of reports that Trinamul workers were divided on nominees at the block level.
“Our party has one symbol, the jora phul (twin flowers) and one candidate, Mamata Banerjee. You don’t need to judge who is the best suited candidate from a particular seat. It does not matter who is more acceptable. We have to understand that there is only one candidate and that is Mamata Banerjee,” Adhikari told the gathering.
The Tamluk MP said that voters across the state would elect Trinamul candidates on behalf of Mamata.
“We are contesting the polls not as individuals but for Mamata Banerjee. People will cast their votes in her favour. This is the message we have to send to the voters,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari, also the Trinamul observer for North Dinajpur, pointed out that in the 2011 Assembly elections, when the Congress was in an alliance with Trinamul, the Congress had put up dummy candidates in seats it had left for Trinamul to contest.
“In the last Assembly elections, there were many seats in which the Congress fielded Independent candidates and ensured that those contesting with our symbol lost. We will have to campaign against the new Marxist Congress. The people have found out how corrupt Mohit Sengupta, the Raiganj Congress MLA, is. We will ensure this time that in North Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad, our candidates get the top position,” he said.
In the 2011 Assembly elections, the Congress had won four of the nine seats in North Dinajpur. The Left Front won three and Trinamul two.
The two Trinamul MLAs are Choudhury Abdul Karim from Islampur and Amal Acharjee from Itahar. Later, two Congress MLAs joined Trinamul.
But faction feud in the ruling party has been a cause for concern in the area. Sources said Trinamul district president Acharjee was at loggerheads with other party groups in Islampur and Raiganj.
Trinamul insiders said that barring Itahar, a host of names were being proposed for the rest of the eight Assembly seats, leading to more divisions in the party.
“Subhendu Adhikari’s comments are an attempt to deter these factions from fighting over nominations. He is also trying to prevent people from putting up Independents after being denied tickets. There are some leaders at the block level who have started spreading the word about their candidature. Subhendu Adhikari warned the workers not to indulge in factionalism,” a Trinamul insider said.
