Party miffed with Mamata

Calcutta, June 15: Mamata Banerjee’s decision to skip Tuesday’s all-party meeting to discuss Darjeeling has not gone down well with her party’s rank and file, some senior leaders and her allies.

The Trinamul Congress chief iterated at a rally today that she would attend the meeting only if the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was invited.

Mamata also demanded a separate secretariat for north Bengal and urged the Centre and the state to immediately announce development packages for the region.

But many in her party said the decision to skip the meeting was not “judicious”, particularly when the Trinamul Congress was trying to gear up its organisation for the general elections due next year.

“Last week, Didi asked us to do the groundwork for the Lok Sabha elections. We had dented the CPM’s base for the first time in the rural polls and to skip the meeting at this juncture would send a wrong signal: that we support the Morcha,” said a leader from South 24-Parganas, where the party wrested the zilla parishad from the CPM. “It was not judicious. We should have taken part in the meeting and placed our views,” he added.

A minority cell leader said “our leader” had rightly pointed out that the Morcha should have been invited to the all-party meeting “but, at the same time, we should not skip it just because of that”.

A senior leader from south Calcutta felt Mamata should not “mix up” Darjeeling with Nandigram. “People had backed us when Mamata had refused to collaborate with the government on Nandigram because the public sentiment was against Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee after the March 14 (2007) police firing.

“Mamata has already made it clear that we are opposed to the Morcha’s statehood demand. Then it would be wise to attend the meeting to highlight how the CPM is responsible for the prevailing mess in the hills,” he added.

On Friday, Mamata told a news conference she would not let the CPM emerge a saviour of the “state’s integrity” by getting an all-party resolution passed against the Gorkhaland demand.

“The meeting will be futile if it is held in the absence of the Morcha. All parties should know its grievances,” she said, adding: “We won’t attend the meeting just to put our seal of approval on a resolution framed by the CPM politburo.”

Her ally BJP is going to attend the meeting. “Why should we stay away?” asked Rahul Sinha, its state secretary.

The SUCI, with which Mamata had tied up for the rural polls, has convened a state committee meeting tomorrow to decide on its participation in the meeting.

Zilla parishad: Samima Sheikh will head the Trinamul zilla parishad in South 24 Parganas, Mamata said. Former IPS officer C.M. Jatua has already been selected vice-chairman.