Barla duo join Didi, tie-up in doubt

April 17: The Trinamul Congress’s sustained campaign in the Dooars and Terai has snared two John Barla loyalists who have added to the steady stream of leaders drifting to the ruling party from the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Left. The latest to join Mamata Banerjee’s party are Bidhan Sarkar and Parasnath Baraik, who went to Calcutta and joined Trinamul in the presence of party general secretary Mukul Roy on Monday. Sarkar was the joint general secretary of the north Bengal committee of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Baraik the joint general secretary of Progressive Tea Workers’ Union, which has mostly Barla loyalists. In Birpara, around 2,000 leaders and workers of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha joined Trinamul today, making this the single largest switch from any party to Trinamul in recent months. Led by Shalini Chhetri, the president of the Dooars committee of Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha, they joined the party. Sarkar, who reached north Bengal today, said: “During Left rule, no development work was carried out in the Dooars. The present state government, and the chief minister in particular, are focusing on the Dooars and have taken up a number of initiatives, including the decision to form the development council.” He said: “We could no longer bank on John Barla or on parties like the JMM and the GJM (Morcha) which so far, have not taken up any activity or initiative to meet the basic demands of the deprived populace in the region. Trinamul and the state government are plugging these critical gaps. This is why we have joined the party.” The departure of this duo ahead of the panchayat polls has upset John Barla, who till a few weeks back was suposedly in talks with Trinamul for an alliance for the rural elections. “When we have made repeated assertions from our end that we are ready to forge an alliance with Trinamul, it is unbecoming on their part to induct our leaders into the party,” Barla said today. “Though their departure would not affect our organisation, we feel it is an inappropriate act and would surely give second thoughts to our proposal for an alliance.” Political observers and JMM insiders said leaders and workers were rushing to join Trinamul to win berths in panchayat polls. “Trinamul is desperate to win the maximum possible seats in the Dooars. There are serious doubts whether it would eventually tie up with Barla unless the latter severs its ties with the Morcha. As activities of Trinamul and the state government in the Dooars have gone up in past four-five months, most of these leaders and workers, who were in JMM, Morcha, or the Left parties, are making a rush to get in to the party,” a source said. “One of the principal causes is their hope that Trinamul would perform excellently in the upcoming rural polls and they would bag a seat in the three-tier panchayat system,” the source added. “There are equal chances of getting nominated as a member of the proposed (Terai Dooars development) council.” While the state and district leaders are welcoming entry of such leaders, Trinamul workers at the grassroots are a bit upset with the new leaders joining the parties from other outfits. Today, as Sarkar and Baraik reached Banarhat from Calcutta, local Trinamul leaders did not welcome them. Chandan Bhowmik, the Jalpaiguri district Trinamul president, said: “It is not the question of poaching on other parties but they (the leaders) are acting spontaneously, seeing the sincerity of Mamata Banerjee and activities of the government and our party workers.” He added: “Several hundreds of people, including prominent leaders and MLAs, have joined Trinamul. The process would continue in the coming days.” Asked about the resentment in Trinamul ranks, he said: “Discussions would be held with concerned leaders to resolve the issue.” In Birpara, Shalini Chhetri said: “We joined Trinamul as the Morcha has miserably failed to include Dooars under GTA and have cheated the Gorkha populace of Dooars.”