Kolkata, April 28
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today called upon her party men to gear up to fight against the communal and other reactionary forces with conviction. She reminded them that the UPA was in power not because of any particular party and she even dared the CPI(M) to withdraw support and face the elections.
The AICC(l) president today addressed two public meetings at Behrampore and Malda, respectively, where she exhorted the party men to get united and work for the country’s development and prosperity.
She said the Congress had always fought for the poor and peasants and it would continue its policy of serving the poor and the disadvantaged sections of society.
These were Sonia’s first public meetings in West Bengal on the eve of the panchayat elections in which the Congress would be pitted against the CPM. The Congress has made an electoral understanding with all other anti-CPM secular parties in the state.
In both the meetings, the external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, the information minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, who is also the WBPCC(l) president, and the veteran Congress(l) leader Somen Mitra and Adhir Chowdhury were present.
The two factional groups of the state Congress (l) led by Dasmunsi and Mitra are now fighting unitedly against the CPI(M) in the panchayat polls and they will also contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections to bring the CPI(M)’s prolonged misrule to an end, Dasmunsi declared.
Though Mamata Banerjee did not respond to the WBPCC(l)’s call and has already fielded her own candidates everywhere for the panchayat polls, Trinamool Congressmen at the grass roots have, however, defied her and made electoral understanding with other like-minded parties to put up a fight against the CPI(M). The front partners RSP and Forward Bloc and the SUCI, BJP and the CPI(M-L) also in some places, had joined the Congress.
Sonia, accompanied by the AICC(l) general secretary, Mohsina Kidwai and external affairs minister had flown to Behrampore in a chopper after landing at the airport in the morning. She first addressed a public meeting at Behrampore in Murshidabad district, from where the external affairs minister, the veteran Adhir Chowdhury and Abdul Mannan had been elected as MPs.
At Behrampore, Sonia declared that the Congressmen were siding with the landless farmers at Singur and Nandigram and they were not supporting the state government’s forcible acquisition of the farmlands for industries. She said the UPA government had already sanctioned a large amount of money to the state for the development of the poor and landless cultivators under various schemes and it was the duty of the state government to utilise the money properly. Sonia asked the Congressmen to keep a close watch on how that money was spent by the state government.
At the meeting in Malda, which has been Congress stronghold for over four decades, Sonia said the Congressmen in the state had the right to fight against the CPM, which had been ruining the state by misusing the police and power. She alleged that the CPM was as responsible as other communal forces for the poor law and order situation in the state.
Sonia spent some time at the late Ghani Khan Chaudhury’s Kotwali Bhavan in Malda town and talked to his family members, including his brother MP Abu Hasem Chaudhury and his sister MLA Rubu Noor. She also visited Chaudhury’s grave and laid floral wreaths there. She took some snacks at the Kotwali residence before leaving for Purnea around 3 pm.
