Kalchini ticket goes to Cong

TT, Calcutta, Oct. 10: Mamata Banerjee has agreed to part with the Kalchini Assembly seat for ally Congress after her stubbornness made the national party seek the Left’s support in Siliguri. The Congress will contest Kalchini in Jalpaiguri and two other seats — Sujapur in Malda and Goalpokhar in North Dinajpur — in the November 7 bypolls to 10 Assembly constituencies. The Trinamul will contest the remaining seven — Belgachhia East, Alipore, Bongaon, Serampore, Contai south, Egra and Rajganj. “We are happy that Mamataji has ultimately conceded the Kalchini seat to us. The Congress workers were hurt because of Trinamul’s insistence on the north Bengal seat. But all’s well that ends well,” Congress general secretary K. Keshava Rao, who is in charge of Bengal affairs, said over the phone today. Rao said Kalchini was cleared for the Congress after he spoke to Trinamul general secretary Mukul Roy last night. “We told him that the Congress had fared better than Trinamul in Kalchini in the 2006 Assembly polls and taking this into consideration, the seat should be offered to us. It’s good that Trinamul has woken up to the ground reality vis-à-vis Kalchini,” he said. A Trinamul general secretary said Mamata wanted to keep the alliance intact and take it forward to the 2011 Assembly polls. “Keeping this in mind, didi did not bargain hard for the seat,” he said. Party sources said some senior Trinamul leaders told her she should not bargain so hard for one seat, given the Congress’s strength in north Bengal. Mamata said tonight that her party was capable of contesting all 10 seats. “But we are leaving Kalchini for the Congress because I want everybody to win. We shall contest seven Assembly seats, while the Congress three, including Kalchini,” she said in an interview to STAR Ananda. For the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had to give in to the 28-14 seat sharing demand of Mamata, followed by withdrawal of candidates from the Bowbazar and Sealdah seats in the Assembly bypolls. But in the recent Siliguri civic elections, the Congress did not let go without a fight. It had won 15 seats in the polls and Trinamul 14 as well as the support of an Independent. both wanted the mayor’s chair and sparred for weeks. The Congress then offered Mamata’s party the deputy mayor and the chairperson’s posts, but she stayed adamant. The Congress then sent feelers to the Left seeking its support, and won both the mayor and the chairperson’s posts. Several Trinamul leaders, including a central minister, had said Mamata’s intransigence had jolted the alliance. “Today we are pointing fingers at the Congress. But as the main Opposition… a gesture to honour an alliance partner could have improved our image,” the minister had said. In Kalchini, Congress candidate Paban Lakra had polled 47,759 votes against Trinamul’s 5,257 in 2006, though the seat was won by the Left. Trinamul staked the claim to the seat because Lakra later joined Mamata’s party and became its candidate for the Alipurduar Lok Sabha seat. Cong councillors ditch their own SNS, KOLKATA, 10 OCT: In a snub to the state Congress leadership's decision to form the Siliguri Municipal Corporation board with the help of the CPI-M and Left councillors, 16 Congress councillors of Ranaghat municipality including its chairman and vice-chairman today joined the Trinamul Congress. The Congress councillors had been critical of the development in Siliguri and protested against their party forming the board with the Left Front in Siliguri. Asked whether it adhered to the politics of revenge, Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee said: “My party and I have never indulged in the politics of revenge. The councillors have joined us on their own as they felt that by joining the Trinamul Congress they could fight the CPI-M better." She said Trinamul provided “unconditional support'’ to the Congress and has never bargained for Cabinet berths unlike some of the allies. For her, the alliance was about mutual trust, confidence and discipline. Mr Shankar Singh, president of Congress's Nadia unit, however, was upset with the news. “This is a poltically immoral decision which would be unhealthy for the politics of alliance. It is immaterial whether this defection has been engineered to avenge the Congres seeking support from Left Front councillors and forming the board at Siliguri," he said. Trying to cover up the difference, he further added that the incident was unlikely to affect the alliance's prospects in the coming Assembly by-elections, but felt that both parties should be restrained. After a long-drawn political battle over the mayor's seat in Siliguri Municipal Corporation, the Congress formed the city civic board with support from West Bengal's ruling Left Front (LF), leaving its national alliance partner Trinamul Congress in the lurch. Terming the political move as an "unholy nexus" between the Congress and the CPI-M, an irate Miss Banerjee had then said: "The Congress has belied the mandate of the people in Siliguri, who voted for a political alternative. But they (Congress) breached their trust. Our party has been very transparent on the whole issue. We will continue to work for the interest of the common masses. And people still believe that Trinamool Congress only can bring change in the state." Meanwhile, with relations under strain between the allies after the Congress formed the board in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation with the Left Front, the party today said seat sharing with Trinamul for the 7 November by-elections to ten assembly seats have not been finalised. A report would be sent to the AICC and WBPCC chief Mr Pranab Mukherjee which would take a final decision on seat-sharing, state Congress chief Mr Pradip Bhattacharya told reporters after the Pradesh Election Committee and Core Committee met. The calculation is simple The Siliguri civic body may not have seen the last of the drama enacted over the mayoral election issue. There is scope for more to test how solid the Congress-Trinamul alliance is, writes Sudipta Chanda POLITICS makes strange bedfellows and the Trinamul Congress is learning this the hard way, courtesy the Siliguri Municipal Corporation mayoral election. Some backroom deliberations between the Congress and the Left Front on the issue left Trinamul stranded. Its poll partner, the Congress, came up trumps not only with the mayor’s post but also the deputy mayor, chairman and mayors-in-council posts in one fell swoop with support from the Left. There was risk involved, for both the Congress and the Left Front, in taking such a decision. Simply put, the Congress ran the risk of annoying Trinamul to the extent of botching up all future poll alliances. The Left Front’s risk was that it would be branded a Congress collaborator. As an immediate reaction to the SMC development, many would like to believe the Congress-Trinamul electoral bonhomie would go for a toss from here on. Rest assured, such is not to be, for the political compulsions are larger than a mere Siliguri Municipal Corporation post. And that is exactly why the Trinamul should steel itself for more such jolts in future as it is the more aspiring of the two in West Bengal. The calculation is simple. Take for instance the SMC election. Despite losing out to the Congress-Trinamul combine, the Left Front secured more votes in total than the winning combination. One has to give credit to the Left’s organisational vigour that allows it superior numerical strength, which matters in elections. And that is where the Trinamul is handicapped and compelled to continue with the Congress if it wants an undivided vote bank. It can hardly ensure such a measure on its own steam and, therefore, the compulsion to stick with the Congress despite the SMC spat. The other option for Trinamul would be to go it alone or combine with the BJP. Although nothing is permanent in the world of politics and no imagination can be written off as outlandish, the Trinamul hardly enjoys the luxury to toe either path. The Congress, which knows the calculations, could therefore afford to and successfully took the risk of displeasing its poll partner vis-a-vis the SMC mayor’s post. The civic body, however, may not have seen the last of the drama enacted over the mayoral election issue. There is scope for more to test how solid the Congress-Trinamul alliance is. It may sound conjectural but it would be interesting to watch what happens if the Left Front ushers a no-confidence motion against the Congress-led minority SMC board in the coming days. With 15 councillors under its belt, the Congress can ill afford to save the board in that instance. And that is when it will need the Trinamul, which has decided to occupy the opposition bench, more than ever. What then? (SNS, NB Extra, 09 Oct 09) Rhinos dead TT, Alipurduar, Oct. 10: The Jaldapara wildlife sanctuary lost two rhinoceroses today. A male strayed out of the forest two days ago and died after being tranquillised. The carcass of a female was found in the western range of the reserve. The male rhino, bruised and bleeding from wounds in its neck and forehead and roaming near the Torsa banks. A bullet was found in the body during post-mortem, said PTI. The female’s body was sent for a post-mortem. 70 Journalists to be quizzed in bribery case New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) was Saturday planning to question over 70 journalists for allegedly taking money from a sub-registrar who has been arrested for taking bribes. The money was apparently meant to prevent them from writing against the official, sources said. “We would be asking those journalists who regularly took money from sub-registrar of north Delhi, Rajender Singh Madan, who has already been arrested,” said a highly placed source in the ACB. The matter came to light when the ACB caught Madan red-handed as he was demanding a bribe for preparing a sale deed and other documents. The ACB sleuths recorded his conversation in which he asked the complainant to hand over the bribe money to one of his accomplices named Yashpal. During its investigations the anti-corruption agency found that Madan allegedly used to pay between Rs.1,000 to Rs.6,000 per month to around 70 journalists for not writing against him. “When we conducted raids at Madan’s office and residence, we found names and visiting cards of over 70 journalists who were on his payroll. Madan had made a list of these journalists and the money they were supposed to receive,” the source added. According to the officials, these journalists were from various newspapers, channels and magazines. “We are not revealing their names yet but the process of interrogations have begun,” said the official adding that those who found guilty would also be booked under appropriate sections of law.