Switch to CPM from Trinamul ...'CPM had received requests from many people to join the party in other parts of the district also and would induct them soon'

TT, 24 June 2019, Coochbehar: Over 100 people, mostly Trinamul Congress supporters, joined the CPM at a village in north Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh’s Assembly constituency on Saturday — a rare scene at a time activists of the ruling party have been switching to the BJP.

“A section of Trinamul workers at Dewanhat had approached CPM members and expressed their intention to join our party. Accordingly, we arranged a meeting in the local CPM office where they formally joined the party. We had never expected that over 100 people would receive party flags from us,” said Mahananda Saha, a Cooch Behar district CPM leader.

Dewanhat is in Cooch Behar 1 block under the Natabari Assembly segment.

Saha said the CPM had received requests from many people to join the party in other parts of the district also and would induct them soon.

“We have also found out that many CPM workers, who became inactive over the past seven-eight years, are resuming their political activities.”

On Saturday, the Forward Bloc organised a procession at Dinhata in the district on the occasion of the party’s foundation day. The Cooch Behar district was the stronghold of Bloc during the Left Front rule.

After the BJP had won the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat, a number of panchayat members and workers of Trinamul switched to the saffron party in the district. While the defections continued, the CPM and Bloc “recovered” their offices from Trinamul.