Mamata shifts venues of meetings - Schedule change in North Dinajpur seen as TMC desperation to retain two seats

The Bidhibari High School ground in Itahar where Mamata will address a meeting
on Monday. (Nantu Dey)

TT, Raiganj, April 10: Barely 48 hours before she was scheduled to address election meetings in North Dinajpur, Mamata Banerjee changed two of the venues from Assembly segments currently represented by Opposition parties to those with sitting Trinamul MLAs.

Political observers say the Trinamul leader has changed the venues suddenly as she is more worried about retaining Itahar and Goalpokhar where the party has MLAs.

Sources in Trinamul said the local leadership of the party in the areas from where the meetings had been shifted were not happy with Mamata's decision.

According to sources in the district administration, Mamata was scheduled to address three election rallies in North Dinajpur on Monday. The first was at Nagar, that is in the Raiganj Assembly seat and in close proximity to Karandighi and Hemtabad constituencies. The three seats are held by the Congress, Forward Bloc and the CPM, respectively.

The second meet was at Chakulia, a seat that is held by the Bloc. The third meeting was at Ramganj, a place that is in Islampur and close to Chopra. Both Islampur and Chopra are held by Trinamul.

However, the district administration received a message late yesterday afternoon, saying the venues at Nagar and Chakulia had been shifted to Itahar and Goalpokhar.

Trinamul leaders in the district said they were taken by surprise that Mamata would shift her meetings from areas where the Opposition had MLAs to those held by the party.

"We had been instructed to chose venues that would be in close proximity to more than one Assembly constituency. Accordingly, we had fixed three venues. But it has come as a surprise that the venues have been shifted to places where we have MLAs. Our candidates who are taking on the Left Front-Congress alliance are unhappy that Mamata Banerjee is not holding meetings for them," a senior district Trinamul leader said.

Of the nine Assembly seats in North Dinajpur, Trinamul had won Islampur and Itahar in 2011. Later, Hamidul Rehman and Gholam Rabbani, the Congress MLAs of Chopra and Goalpokhar, respectively, switched to Trinamul.

"It now seems that Mamata is worried about the two seats of Itahar and Goalpokhar. Itahar's Trinamul MLA, Amal Acharjee, who is also the district president of the party, had defeated Srilumar Mukherjee of the CPI in 2011 by just 7,000 votes. And now with the anti-Trinamul alliance intensifying its campaign in both these seats, we have a strong feeling that Mamata chose to focus on the two constituencies. What is interesting is that in 2014, Rabbani made eight Congress members of the Goalpokhar panchayat samity switch to Trinamul and the ruling party captured the rural body. However, recently, all the eight rejoined the Congress at the instance of Deepa Das Munshi. This has come as a major cause of concern for the Trinamul chief. That is why the venues were changed," an observer said.

Mohit Sengupta, the sitting Raiganj MLA and the district Congress president, said he was not reading much into the changes in the venues.

"Trinamul has nothing to say to the people of the district. Changing venues will not have much effect on Trinamul's total defeat in North Dinajpur," Sengupta said.

Apurba Pal, district CPM secretary, said Mamata was afraid of a total whitewash. "She (Mamata) has realised the situation. Her leaders in the district are not certain about fixing venues for her meetings. Now they are desperate to salvage the situation by changing the venues," Pal pointed out.