‘Systematic poaching’ of leaders by Trinamool gets Cong worried

Consider the case of Sukhendu Sekhar Roy,an AICC member who joined Trinamool to become a Rajya Sabha MP. The lawyer close to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was upset since he was offered the Congress ticket for Assembly elections.

Another such instance is of Saurav Chakraborty,former chief of West Bengal Chhatra Parishad. After deserting the Congress for Trinamool,Chakraborty was made the head of the Trinamool student wing.

There have been quite a few similar cases in the districts in the last two months. In fact at various levels in the Congress,several partymen are weighing options and sources said a councillor from Kolkata Municipal Corporation and a former MLA may be the next to join Trinamool.

And the person who has been most vocal against the trend is Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,Baharampur Congress MP and president of Murshidabad district Congress. “Trinamool Congress is alluring Congress workers with rewards and their only objective is to weaken the Congress organisation,” said Chowdhury.

Another Congress leader who has expressed his concern over the trend is Omprakah Mishra, party spokesman in the state. “Congress leaders deserting party will not erode the party’s support base. However,we do not appreciate the attempts by our alliance partner in West Bengal to engineer defections in the party,” Mishra told The Indian Express.

Many Congress party insiders The Indian Express talked to confirmed that they were offered tempting political rewards for deserting Congress in favour of Trinamool. Congress leaders also said the party supporters are also annoyed with the indifference shown to them by party MLAs and ministers of the coalition government.

The party is also considering to bring back those who contested as Independent candidates against the Trinamool in the recently concluded Assembly elections. The state Congress committee is also discussing to take in Ram Pyare Ram,Abdul Khaleque Mollah and Hamidul Rehman. About a dozen of Congress leaders were suspended for contesting against Trinamool candidates.

Leaders like Adhir Chowdhury argue that these leaders should be taken back since they were not opposed to the Congress but had raised voices of dissent for not getting due recognition for their services to the party.