Suvendu Adhikari used a Nandigram anniversary gathering to predict TMC's prolonged political eclipse. The remarks prompted Trinamool to allege conspiracy and Congress to caution against arrogance.West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and his predecessor Mamata Banerjee.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday attacked the Trinamool Congress, claiming that the party had been wiped out in the state and would not return to power for another 100 years, news agency Press Trust of India reported.Adhikari made the remarks at a gathering in Nandigram on the 19th anniversary of the 2007 agitation against land acquisition. The movement became a turning point in West Bengal politics and contributed to the end of the Left Front's 34-year rule in 2011.Addressing the gathering at Gokulnagar, Adhikari recalled his prediction from the previous year that he would return to Nandigram for the November 10 Martyrs' Day programme in 2026, but the TMC would no longer be in power."Last year, I had said that I would come here in 2026, but you would not find both the name and symbol of the corrupt TMC.
Has my prediction not come true? Now I say the TMC will not return for the next 100 years.
Write it down," PTI quoted him as saying. "Jora Phool (twin flowers) and Ghass Phool (flower on grass) have both been uprooted. You will not see the Trinamool Congress again, not even in the next 100 years," he added.Adhikari was once a prominent TMC leader and played a key role in the Nandigram movement before joining the BJP in 2020.
Responding to his comments, Kunal Ghosh, spokesperson for the Mamata-led faction of the TMC, said the party was fighting a "conspiracy" to take away its name and symbol. He also called for serious introspection within the party."Trinamool's name and symbol have not faded.
A conspiracy is afoot to snatch the party's name and symbol from its rightful representatives. We are fighting that conspiracy, and we hope to emerge victorious.
Suvendu is doing this to gratify his rage and vengeance against certain leaders of our party," Ghosh told PTI."But we must also introspect why we allowed people like Suvendu Adhikari to successfully drive a wedge through our party. Besides pointing fingers at our political adversaries, we must also delve into our mistakes," he added.Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury described Adhikari's remarks as "arrogance" and said the people's mandate was not any political party's "fixed deposit"."In a democracy, the people are the ultimate holders of power.
No political party is permanent. When the Congress made mistakes in the past, people rejected it; when the Left Front faltered, they voted it out; and people have also delivered their verdict on the TMC's mistakes," Chowdhury said."No ruling party, whether the BJP or any other, can afford to become arrogant or disregard the people's mandate, however powerful it may consider itself.
India cannot be turned into an authoritarian state like China or Russia, where elections and democracy are stifled," he added.Chowdhury said history showed that the people of Bengal had never accepted arrogance and high-handedness from those in power and would not do so in the future. Adhikari's claim about the TMC's political future thus drew responses from both the party's Mamata-led faction and the Congress, with their leaders stressing introspection and respect for the people's mandate.- Ends