West Bengal Politics: Mamata-Led TMC And Rebel Faction Face Off Over July 21 Martyr's Day Event In Kolkata

Kolkata: TMC’s factional feud is becoming increasingly bitter, with the party’s annual Martyrs’ Day rally on July 21 emerging as the latest flashpoint between the rival camps led by Mamata Banerjee and Ritabrata Banerjee, who claims the support of more than 60 of the party’s 80 MLAs.

Both factions have sought permission from Kolkata Police to hold separate Shahid Diwas programmes at the same venue in front of Victoria House in Dharmatala on July 21.

The event commemorates the killing of 13 Youth Congress activists in police firing during a protest in Kolkata in 1993. Over the years, it has evolved into the TMC's biggest annual political showpiece.

In its letter to the Kolkata Police Commissioner, the Ritabrata faction requested permission to use the venue from 10 am on July 19 to install the stage, sound system and other infrastructure.

The Mamata faction has also submitted a similar request. "We have written to the Kolkata Police Commissioner seeking permission to hold the party's Shahid Divas programme at the same venue where we have been organising it for decades. It is our party's most important central programme and has become part of our socio-political culture," said Dola Sen, National Joint Secretary of the Mamata-led TMC faction and a Rajya Sabha MP.

Leaders close to Mamata said this year's mobilisation is aimed less at attracting new supporters than at reassuring grassroots workers unsettled by the party's organisational decline following its electoral defeat.

Sen argued that if the BJP-led government could keep Red Road, one of central Kolkata's busiest thoroughfares, closed for seven days for the Yoga Day event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the same yardstick should apply to the TMC's Martyrs' Day rally, for which traffic restrictions would last only a few hours.