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Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta
Senior Trinamul Congress Member of Parliament Ajit Kumar Panja on Tuesday lambasted his party chief Mamata Banerjee for "butchering democracy" within the party.
In a hurriedly called press conference at the Calcutta Press Club, Panja accused Banerjee of being a despot and said she had struck an unholy alliance with the Congress.
In an emotionally charged statement, Panja lamented that Banerjee had bypassed him even while deciding on the candidate list for next month's assembly election.
"I have always been kept in the dark on all major policy decisions. I was not taken into confidence even when Trinamul decided to quit the NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government at the Centre on the Tehelka issue. I was told that Trinamul would not sever its links with the NDA and would continue to extend support from outside. But soon Mamata performed a volte-face, shocking all of us," he said.
Panja alleged that he had been forced to digest all kinds of humiliation within the party over the last two-and-a-half years. He accused Banerjee of threatening him with dire consequences for his alleged links with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"She accused me of having tacit links with Vajpayee, threatening that whosoever was found to have ties with the PM would be taught a lesson. I am 68 and can't really take all these indignities any more. I have been minister since 1971, yet no one can say that I ever clung to anybody's coat tails. There is virtually no democracy in the party and that leaves me peeved."
Asked whether he would join the Bharatiya Janata Party, as speculation in political circles has it, Panja said he would always remain loyal to the Trinamul, a party "formed of my blood", adding that he would do every bit to ensure its victory in the election.
Asked if he would campaign for the Trinamul candidates, Panja said he would do so only if invited.
Only a few days ago, Panja's younger brother and MP from Barasat, Ranjit Kumar Panja, had expressed similar views and questioned Banerjee's prudence in quitting the NDA. The senior Panja's unusual outburst now has led observers to believe that the brothers may soon quit the party.
A visibly broken Panja suspected a larger conspiracy behind the Trinamul-Congress alliance in Bengal, accusing senior Communist Party of India, Marxist, politician Harkishen Singh Surjeet and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pranab Mukherjee of hatching a plot to "finish Mamata".
"We had criticised the Congress in our last manifesto accusing the party of being the B team of the Marxists in Bengal. Suddenly, the Trinamul leader decides to enter into a political understanding with the same party. Haven't we lost face before the common people by doing so? How will we go to the public with so much self-contradiction? I feel that both the CPI-M and the Congress have grabbed Mamata to translate their ulterior motives into reality," Panja remarked.
Panja, who broke into tears while reminiscing about his 'humiliation' by Banerjee, said he was feeling "extremely bad" for those right candidates who were denied tickets by her.
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