North TMC upset with Mamata move - Leaders from region fail to find a place in Trinamul's 'policy body'

TT, Siliguri, June 19: Mamata Banerjee's decision to not nominate anyone from north Bengal to a 21-member "policy body" which she announced yesterday for the Trinamul Congress has not gone down well with leaders, including some ministers and MLAs, in the region.

Mamata, while speaking at a political workshop organised at Netajit Indoor Stadium in Calcutta yesterday, had announced that the party was forming a policy body which would meet once a month and frame Trinamul's policies on different issues.

Similar bodies would be formed in each district and MLAs, along with Trinamul district chiefs, would be made the members.

A minister from north Bengal said it was "humiliating" that not a single Trinamul leader from the region had made it to the policy body. "We welcome and appreciate the decision to form the policy body. But it is disappointing that not a single party leader, MLA or minister from north Bengal has been included in this body. It is humiliating for us," said the minister, who didn't want to be named.

"Despite odds, we could bag 24 seats in the seven districts of north Bengal. It is true that some of us have been included in the state Cabinet, while others have been given other posts. But the party's decision of including only leaders from Calcutta and south Bengal in the new body has not gone down well with party workers," he added.

Mamata had yesterday appointed three leaders to function as observers of north Bengal districts. They are Subrata Bakshi (Cooch Behar and South Dinajpur), Aroop Biswas (Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar) and Suvendu Adhikari (North Dinajpur and Malda).

A senior Trinamul MLA from north Bengal said the region should have been represented in the policy body.

"North Bengal has some unique political features. If the party intends to frame its policy keeping in mind the entire state, we believe there should have been representatives of our region in the body. Our party chief is disappointed with leaders of South Dinajpur, Malda and Darjeeling districts where we did not get a single seat. But results in other four districts are good. There can be no reason for not including even a single leader from here in the body," said the MLA.

Udayan to head forest corporation

Udayan Guha, who left the Forward Bloc to join Trinamul in October and retained his Dinhata Assembly seat in this year's elections, has been nominated the chairman of the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation by chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Guha said he would take charge in the corporation's Salt Lake office in Calcutta on Monday.