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Rebels hold the key in Calcutta polls

Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta

Rebel candidates are likely to play a decisive role in Sunday's Calcutta Municipal Corporation elections. Barring the ruling Left Front, internecine battles have assumed monumental proportions in almost all leading political parties here.

The problem, however, is the most acute in the Trinamul Congress, which faces a formidable challenge from the rebels in over 20 wards.

The Trinamul rebels have come together under the Trinamul Bachao Committee's banner and are using the party's tri-colour as their official flag. Their election symbol (twin leaves) is also quite similar of that of the Trinamul (twin flowers).

In north Calcutta alone, the Trinamul rebels have put up candidates in 10 wards.

The dissidents accuse Mamata Banerjee of "compromising the party's secular ideology and becoming a puppet in the hands of the business community."

The Trinamul, on the other hand, believes the rebels are being controlled by the Union Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Kumar Panja and Sudip Bandopaddhyay, both of whom were unhappy with the ticket distribution.

Biju Islam, a leader of the TBC, is convinced the time has come to teach Mamata a lesson. "We nurtured the party when Mamata snapped ties with the Congress. Now when it comes to rewarding our hard work, she, in all her prudence, allots our ward to the BJP. It's ridiculous."

Islam said wherever TBC candidates do not have a chance, the committee will extend support to the Left.

The only consolation for Trinamul perhaps is the fact is that other parties too face similar problems. The BJP rebels have floated their own outfit - the Shayama Prasad Mukherjee Party - and have fielded candidates against Trinamul at four places.

The SPM has also fielded candidates against the BJP's official nominees.

The BJP state leadership on Thursday, expelled Ashok Agrawal, the rebel candidate in ward 42, for six years. The party also reprimanded P Yadav for not withdrawing his nomination against the Trinamul candidate in ward no 6.

Congress too has its share of worries as far as dissidence is concerned. The cold war between the Pradesh Congress Committee president A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury and the working president Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi is likely a pose a few problems to the party. The dissidents have fielded candidates at five places under the banner of Congress Bachao Manch.

The CBM is upset over the way party leadership embraced a Forward Bloc defector, Ilyas Islahi, and allotted him ticket from ward 78.

Islahi was a FB councillor from Ward 77. The ward this time has been reserved for women.

"How can we welcome such people into our party...these people were responsible for burning the party's flags and abusing late Indira Gandhi in public meetings," Khan said.

Experts believe that division of anti-Left votes will help the CPM-led Left Front in Sunday's poll.

The CPM is also likely to retain the Salt Lake Municipal Council, which goes to the polls the same day.

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