Kolkata, May 15
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee was heckled by a group of agitated Congressmen at the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Bhavan here today prior to the announcement of the list of United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidates for the June 19 Kolkata Municipal election.
As soon as Mr Mukherjee, also the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president, entered the Congress headquarters here, he was encircled by a group of agitated party workers. They were raising slogans. Some of them heckled Mr Mukherjee as he came out of the car in front of the security personnel, who were taken aback at the sudden turn of the incident.
Using anti-UDF slogans and filthy language against Mr Mukherjee and UDF convener and city Mayor Subrata Mukherjee in particular, holding them responsible for allegedly denying tickets to the Pradesh Congress workers at the grassroots level, particularly in Ward No. 68 and 55, the party workers also attacked the newspersons and TV crew, who tried to film the incident.
Some journalists were also injured when they were attacked by the agitated workers. Soon the security staff took control of the situation and escorted Mr Mukherjee, along with some state party leaders, including Pradesh Congress acting vice-president Pradip Bhattacharjee, inside the headquarters. But slogan shouting continued even after that.
One of the dissident Congress workers even slapped Mr Bhattacharjee with the security personnel remaining mute spectators.
Meanwhile, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress have failed to reach any political settlement for jointly fighting against the CPM in the coming municipal elections in the state on May 22 and subsequently. The elections for the Kolkata Corporation are due on June 19.
Mr Pranab Mukherjee is in the city. He is making a last attempt to iron out differences between Mr Somen Mitra and Ms Mamata Banerjee for avoiding any division in the anti-Left votes though Ms Banerjee have turned down Ms Sonia Gandhi’s offer for returning back to the Congress fold.
Both the Congress and the Trinamool Congress candidates have started filing their nominations against each other, though Mayor Subrata Mukherjee has sided with the Congress, defying Ms Banerjee’s directives.
Ten other Trinamool Congress MLAs and about 12 other leaders have also filed their nominations after making an electoral adjustment with the Congress. They are fighting the elections with the symbol of Sharad Pawar’s NCP since they could not get any separate symbol for them from the state Election Commission.
Though most of the municipalities are under the control of the Left Front parties, the Trinamool Congress and the BJP have been jointly running Kolkata Corporation since 2000 with Mr Mukherjee as Mayor. The CPM will be making a serious attempt to capture the Kolkata Corporation and accordingly, they have been projecting Mr Bikash Bhattacharyya, government standing counsel in the High Court, as their mayoral candidate.
Of the 23 wards in Kolkata, the CPM will be fighting in 20 with its partners the CPI, the RSP and the Forward Bloc contesting on one seat each.
Meanwhile, the Congress announced the list of its candidates for 94 seats for the elections to the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
Announcing the list, Mr Pranab Mukharjee said while 89 of the candidates had been fielded by the party, five more have been allotted the ‘hand’ symbol at the request of Mr Pares Pal, Trinamool Congress MLA who joined the West Bengal Unnayan Manch, a Congress ally.
While the manch itself would field 38 candidates, the PDS, a breakaway faction of the CPM, has nominated six, the NCP two and the Samajwadi Party one.
