TMC feuds trigger exodus to Cong in Murshidabad

BEHRAMPORE: Trinamool Congress’ bickering in Murshidabad has led to a reverse flow from the party to Congress in the district where the latter is still a viable alternative to Mamata Banerjee’s party.
Around 200 block-level Trinamool workers, who had switched loyalties from Congress in Burwan block led by a panchayat member, staged a comeback on Friday by taking flags from West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury and local MLA Pratima Rajak.
Once a Left stronghold, the Burwan block adjacent to Kandi has been in a state of flux for years. Political loyalties kept changing from Left to Congress and then to Trinamool, and now a section is back in Congress.
Burwan is no exception. A few days ago, 70 Trinamool workers from Raninagar in Murshidabad took the Congress flag at the Murshidabad district Congress office. The two incidents, read with the results at Balirghat Cooperative Society where Congress-Left candidates won most of the seats, bear out a trend different from that in the rest of the state where Congress is a marginalised force. This explains why former Trinamool minister Humayun Kabir came back to Congress.
While Trinamool district spokesperson Asoke Das refused to give weightage to such “stray developments”, Chowdhury claimed his party was still the first choice in Murshidabad. “We were the first party and still are the dominant force in Murshidabad. It is another matter that Trinamool has grabbed all the municipalities and zilla parishads using police,” he said.
Trinamool factional feuds became intense after the demise of district president and MP Mannan Hossein.