Two tribal families join TMC in Purulia

KOLKATA: In a rerun of Naxalbari incident, two tribal families from Purulia district joined Trinamool Congress following BJP’s national president Amit Shah’s visit to their houses. In May 2017, two BJP workers with national president Amit Shah had lunch in Naxalbari in north Bengal, joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) nine days after they hosted Shah at their house.

Four members of two tribal families were brought to the TMC office at Kalighat in Kolkata early morning, and there they joined Trinamool Congress. Madan Mitra, a senior leader of TMC, said the tribal families had come to Kolkata on their own.

“They did not even know who that dangerous looking person (referring to Shah) was. They only saw that the person with police and heavily armed paramilitary forces entered their village and ordered them to join BJP. They were terrorised. So, they started for Didi’s shelter. Everybody in Bengal knows that Didi resides near Kalighat. They have asked for our support and we have taken them in our party,” said Mitra, a former minister accused of Saradah chit fund scam. Mitra has served jail term for more than two years.

Reacting to the incident, Rahul Sinha, national secretary of BJP said, “This incident shows how hassled TMC leaders are. They are so scared after Amit Ji’s visit, that they abducted these two families and forced them to join TMC. Amit ji did not even enter their houses, he just spoke to them. But this is the beginning of their (TMC) end. It shows how frustrated the TMC leaders are.”

Mitra said, “Last year, when the BJP supremo came, he had lunch in somebody’s house. This time nobody even gave him a chair to sit. Next time, people will not allow him to enter the state. We want to tell him that it is not Madhya Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh, this is Bengal. We will fight every inch here.”

Meanwhile, this incident has left BJP embarrassed, as in both cases the party failed to protect its workers. “I warned my party not to take our national president Amit Shah ji to visit the houses of party workers in Purulia. I feared that after Amitji leaves for Delhi-these karyakartas would be forced to declare that they are with Trinamool Congress. That’s exactly what has happened,” tweeted Chandra Bose, a BJP leader and grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.