Rift between TMC & state Cong widens

Tensions between the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) and its ally the Trinamool Congress (TMC) will reach its zenith tomorrow when the Congress holds a gana dharna (mass protest) near Writers’ Building, Kolkata, against the state government’s refusal to pay paddy farmers the minimum support price stipulated by the Centre — of Rs 1,080 per quintal.

This protest comes on the heels of another run-in between the two, over the renaming of Indira Bhavan in Salt Lake. The TMC-led government’s decision to rename the building as Nazrul Bhavan in memory of the Bengali poet Nazrul Islam has the state Congress up in arms.

WBPCC President Pradip Bhattacharya had on December 31 written to chief minister Mamata Banerjee stating, “We (Congress) will not accept such a renaming.”

He said, “As for the protest tomorrow highlighting the plight of paddy farmers, we have urged the state government several times and have even held protest rallies at district level before this. But to no avail.”

We recognise that a seven-month-old government cannot change things all of a sudden. But we have not even seen any road map or blue print from this government to bring about the change.”

Bhattacharya has written to Banerjee in August, September and October detailing 61 instances of how TMC party activists have been vandalising Congress offices. The letter also names the TMC party workers involved in the . Till date the WBPCC has received no reply.