March 5: Two Left Front MPs today moved out of its fold — Katwa legislator Abu Ayesh Mondol joined the Trinamul Congress after being expelled from the CPM and Forward Bloc MP Hiten Burman quit the party.Both leaders were denied tickets for the Lok Sabha polls. The party said Mondol was not given the ticket as Katwa ceased to exist as a constituency after delimitation. Burman, sources said, was not fielded in Cooch Behar as “he had lost contact with the masses”.
Mondol, who was expelled from the CPM this morning, was at Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee’s door to join her party in the evening.
Mondol, in his sixties, is the first sitting MP to move to the rival camp. Earlier, Radhikaranjan Pramanik of Mathurapur in South-24 Parganas had joined Trinamul and Bratin Sengupta, a former Rajya Sabha MP, had joined the BJP. But neither was a sitting MP. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, expelled from the CPM last year, has not joined any other party. Burman has not spoken his mind yet on his plans.
Yesterday, Mondol spoke out against the CPM leadership after the party dropped him from the list of nominees. The MP said he was “grieved and shocked” that the CPM had not cared to even inform him. “They did not show basic courtesy,” he said.
In Calcutta, a beaming Mamata, with Mondol by her side, said: “No genuine Leftist can continue with the CPM now. We are happy he has joined us. He contacted us last night and I welcomed him.” Designating him a vice-president in Trinamul, Mamata said Mondol had not sought a nomination. “He didn’t seek a nomination and will tour the districts to unmask the CPM.”
Mondol named Benoy Konar while criticising CPM leaders. “There is no democracy in the CPM. The champions of poor are enjoying lives of luxury,” he said. “The party is mired in nepotism, sycophancy, corruption and groupism. These are now eating into the vitals of the party.”
The CPM’s Burdwan secretary, Amal Haldar, formally expelled Mondol this morning. The charges against him were dissidence, “connivance with the Opposition and running a vilification campaign against the party”.
Like Somnath Chatterjee, Mondol was summarily expelled under Article 19(13) of the CPM constitution.
CPM state secretary Biman Bose kept mum on the matter today, but Konar, who is said to have groomed Mondol, lashed out. “The state’s garbage needs a dustbin where dogs can fight over them. Trinamul grabbed what we threw into the bin,’’ he said.
Konar claimed the district party unit knew about Mondol’s clandestine contact with Trinamul, but added that party had still thought of fielding him. “He was dropped because his constituency ceased to exist after delimitation,’’ he said.
On Mondol’s accusation that the CPM had not bothered to inform him about his removal from the nomination list, Konar said it was not the norm to consult MPs or MLAs before finalising lists. “The Lok Sabha membership is not the paternal property of MPs,’’ he said.
The Left Front’s troubles may have just begun. Joachim Baxla, the RSP MP from Alipurduar in Jalpaiguri, today complained about “lack of transparency” after he was dropped from the list. The RSP is worried he may join the fray as an Independent.
I have always maintained that there is no difference in any of the political parties.
Here is one example to prove my point.
Two MPs, one CPM and one Forward Bloc have left their parties and joined Mamata Banerjee's Trinumul Congress. Suddenly they have discovered there is no democracy in the CPM. Mamata as expected has welcomed them with open arms.
Some days back an MLA pf Paswan's party joined Nitish Kumar's party as he had been denied a ticket. We shall find many more cases now of people who are suddenly finding faults in their parties to join a new party, just because they have been denied seats to "serve the people". How sad? They are not being allowed to serve the people.
My heart bleads for them.
Radheshyam
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