Mamata seeks INDIA bloc unity as rival TMC camps, Cong hold parallel rallies

Kolkata, July 21: TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday urged the Congress and the CPI(M) to bury differences and unite against the BJP in West Bengal under the INDIA bloc, even as her party’s organisational split played out in public with rival Martyrs’ Day rallies being held by her faction and rebels.
The annual observance, which commemorates the killing of 13 Youth Congress workers in police firing during a rally led by Banerjee on July 21, 1993, under the then Left Front government, was fragmented for the first time since the TMC came to power.
A breakaway group of TMC MPs, now aligned with the Nationalist Congress Party of India (NCPI), also held a separate observance in New Delhi. The outreach came at a time when the TMC is battling its biggest internal crisis since its formation.
Banerjee, however, ruled out any reconciliation with dissidents. Three Martyrs Day programmes were held in Kolkata, the Mamata-led TMC rally near Birla Planetarium, a parallel event by the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel faction at Mayo Road, and a Congress programme at Shahid Minar, all within a stretch of less than three kilometres. Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday slammed the breakaway faction led by Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, branding it a “BJP-sponsored” outfit and ruled out any reconciliation with the rebels, while asserting that the “real TMC” remained firmly with her camp.
Meanwhile, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee sent a Rs 10 crore legal notice to veteran leader Madan Mitra on Tuesday, claiming that the MLA made defamatory statements against him in a social media post. (PTI)