Former West Bengal minister and two-time CPI(M) MP Bansa Gopal Chowdhury, who has been expelled by the party on charges of “sexual misconduct and moral degradation”, was once the face of the CPI(M) and its trade union wing CITU in the Bardhaman-Asansol industrial belt in the state.
The Bengal CPI(M) leadership recently expelled Bansa, the Paschim Bardhaman district secretariat member and CITU district secretary, on the recommendation made by its Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) that probed into the complaint lodged by a woman CPI(M) leader from Murshidabad district, who alleged that he subjected her to “sexual harassment” by sending her offensive and inapproprate messages on social media.
Bansa, 65, has denied the allegations, hitting out at the party for expelling him.
During the previous CPI(M)-led Left Front regime, Bansa started his political innings in early 1980s from student politics, becoming a member of the CPI(M)’s student wing, Student Federation of India (SFI). He was then studying Economics in TDB College at Ranigunj in the then undivided Bardhaman district. He was later named the SFI’s Bardhaman unit president.
Bansa rose through the CPI(M) ranks quickly. In the 1987 Assembly polls, the CPI(M) leadership gave him ticket to contest from the Raniganj Assembly seat by replacing the sitting party MLA and CITU heavyweight Haradhan Roy.
After winning the Raniganj seat, Bansa became a minister as well as the Asansol Durgapur Development Authority chairman within a few years. In the Jyoti Basu Cabinet, he was inducted as the minister of state for vocational education in 1991 and in 1996, appointed as the technical education minister. In the Buddhadeb ministry during 2001-06, he did a short stint as the small and cottage industry minister.
In 2005, the CPI(M) fielded Bansa as its candidate in the Asansol Lok Sabha bypoll. He retained the seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, but lost it to then BJP nominee Babul Supriya in the 2014 elections.
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A CPI(M) leader from the Bardhaman region said, “Bansa replaced hardliner CPI(M) and CITU leader Haradhan Roy in the industrial belt. He was very flexible and popular. However, we never thought that one day he will be facing such allegations.”
The complainant CPM leader has apprised the party leadership of the entire sequence of events related to her sexual harassment allegations against Bansa. “Bansa Gopal had promised to give me information about an organisation. When I did not receive that information, I reminded him about it. He then started sending me obscene messages on Facebook Messenger,” she was said to have alleged in her complaint.
She also explained her decision to engage with Bansa on WhatsApp, stating, “I am associated with the party mouthpiece in Murshidabad district. So I gave Bansa Gopal my WhatsApp number,” alleging that he subsequently started sending her “obscene” messages on WhatsApp.
In November last year, she lodged a formal complaint with the CPI (M)’s Murshidabad unit, which prompted the ICC’s probe leading to the state party leadership’s expulsion decision.
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A senior CPI(M) leader stressed the party’s “unwavering stand on such matters”, saying “We may have zero seats in the Assembly and the Lok Sabha in the state, but we have never tolerated such things in the party. We will never allow it in future too”.
He also claimed sarcastically that such expelled CPI(M) leaders would later “become the assets of the ruling TMC or the principal Opposition BJP”.
On his part, Bansa denied the charges levelled by the complainant, blaming his party rivals for “hatching this conspiracy” against him. He alleged, “A section of the party has always been working against me. It wanted to work in collusion with the BJP in Paschim Bardhaman. I was the main hurdle in their designs.”
Bansa also alleged, “Those who set up this trap are associated with a group from Howrah. They were arrested for illegal business in hospitals during Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s tenure as the CM.” He said, “Last Thursday, I had a chat with the state party secretary on WhatsApp. I wanted to quit myself. I said I don’t feel good, new leaders should be given the responsibility. That’s it, I don’t know anything else.”
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Bansa also targeted the state CPI(M) leadership, claiming that it has been “imposing decisions with a bureaucratic attitude due to which many have left the party”. “I also had to bear these decisions as an old-time party worker in the district. Even when I was an MLA or a minister, a party section spread rumors that I was involved in illegal coal business. Even then I had to fight their false propaganda,” he claimed.
However, a CPI(M) state secretariat member said, “This is not the first time that a sexual harassment complaint has been received against Bansa. We have got several such complaints against him. So finally the party leadership took the decision to expel him.”
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