KPP lady leader joins Trinamul - Mitali says statehood agitation would disrupt progress

Mitali Roy . Picture by Biplab Basak

TT, Nov. 17: Mitali Roy, one of the few prominent Kamtapur People’s Party women leaders in north Bengal, today joined Trinamul and spoke of working with the government to bring development to the Rajbangshi community.

“Any efforts to carry out a statehood movement would only disrupt such development initiatives of the state government,” Mitali said.

Mitali, who at the height of the Kamtapur movement in the late 1990s rode a bike to villages to campaign for a separate Kamtapur state, is the first senior KPP member to join Trinamul.

She was a KPP central committee member and is known to have an impressive following among village women in north Bengal.

A senior Trinamul leader, who did not want to be named, said: “As Mitali is a popular leader among Rajbangshis and known for her fiery speeches, we feel her inclusion into Trinamul would help the party foray in Rajbangshi-dominated areas. People will listen to her speeches on the state’s plans for north Bengal.”

Mitali’s switch to Trinamul has happened at a time the state government has successfully managed to muffle the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha’s statehood cry in the Darjeeling hills.

Mitali, who has been made the Jalpaiguri Trinamul Mahila Congress chief, today said: “We want to move ahead, keeping behind the history of the KPP movement. The state government has already opened a university in the name of Rajbangshi statesman Thakur Panchanan Burma and is also opening a Rajbanshi academy for conservation of our culture. We should join hands and help the government carry out extensive development work that can improve the socio-economic condition of Rajbangshis.”

Some sources hinted that Mitali may be under pressure to join Trinamul given her brother, a KLO activist, is an accused in a case of killing CPM activists in 2002.

Mrinal, Mitali’s brother who was a a self-styled KLO deputy commander, is now out on bail in the case of firing at the Dhupguri CPM office in August 2002 that killed five Left leaders.

Mitali is the daughter of Jagadananda Roy, a former minister of state for health in Siddhartha Shankar Roy’s cabinet. Mitali was a Youth Congress member in the 1990s when Mamata Banerjee was its state president. “In 1999, Mitali joined the KPP and soon became a central committee member of the party,” a source said.