Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress’s rebel camp turned its parallel July 21 Martyrs’ Day programme into a platform to publicly praise CM Suvendu Adhikari for his ‘graft crusade’ while blaming Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday for corruption and the party’s split and decline.Addressing a sparsely attended gathering on Mayo Road near the Gandhi statue, Trinamool’s rebel heavyweights accused Mamata Banerjee of alienating senior party workers and reducing a cadre-based organisation into a family-controlled outfit while displaying her affection for her nephew Abhishek.“I thank current CM Suvendu Adhikari for bringing out the July 21 Commission report. May the families of those who died that day get justice. We fought under Mamata’s leadership. But today I see that blood relations have become more important than devoted workers,” said Hakim.Madan Mitra, who defected to the rebel camp only last week, said: “If Mamata Banerjee was here today, these martyr family members would have been made to sit in the back or even out of the dais, while celebrities would have been in front.”Taking the attack one notch higher, Mitra added: “Abhishek or celebrities didn’t make you the CM. We did. If you have the courage, Mamata Banerjee, walk here. Not even a single egg or stone will be thrown…Come and say, ‘I made a mistake. Like Gandhari, I had become blind because of my affection for my son.’”Ritabrata Banerjee, the leader of opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, took further dig at the Mamata camp as he said: “The Martyrs’ Day platform is not a reality show stage. It is not a catwalk. Yet this is how it has been celebrated all these years. Party workers never got any space there. TV actors playing side roles and film personalities were given seats on the stage, while those who actually built and managed the organisation were pushed further and further back.”Ritabrata also questioned why the July 21 Commission report had allegedly remained unpublished for years and demanded to know whom Mamata Banerjee had sought to protect. He promised that if his faction secured EC recognition as the real Trinamool, every July 21 martyr family would receive a monthly financial assistance of Rs 10,000 from Trinamool Congress’ bank account.Calling this faction as the “real Trinamool”, Aroop Biswas and Anubrata Mondal urged more party workers to join the group. “Come. The Trinamool you have seen this time will become much bigger the next time. The Trinamool belongs to the people. I urge everyone to stand by this Trinamool,” Mondal said.Several senior rebel functionaries, including Biplab Mitra, Snehashis Chakraborty, Siuli Saha, Debasish Kumar, Javed Khan, Santanu Sen, Krishna Chakraborty and Rabindranath Chattopadhyay, shared the dais alongside relatives of four July 21 martyrs — Ranjit Das, Sheikh Abdul Khalek, Dilip Das and Ratan Mondal.Despite the high-profile line-up, attendance remained modest. Police and organisers estimated that around 500 supporters were present through most of the programme. More than half the chairs inside the covered enclosure remained vacant, while senior functionaries, including Hakim, Debasish Kumar and Biswas, were seen personally escorting supporters towards the venue.Some attendees sitting at the fag end of the venue were even seen listening to Mamata Banerjee’s Facebook Live broadcast on their phones. One supporter, Gurudas Shankar Pan, said, “The party has only just split. It will take time, but people will come.” Another supporter, Arun Das, who has been associated with the Trinamool since 2000, said, “My neta is Debasish Kumar. Whichever side he is on, I will go there.”
