A secretariat member of the CPM’s West Burdwan district committee joined the Trinamul Congress, accompanied by 1,200 CPM cadres in the presence of two ministers at the district TMC office, this afternoon.
Pankaj had been holding the charges as CITU state committee member and a lieutenant of the party’s IT cell over the years. He was handed over the TMC’s political flag by state power minister Arup Biswas, where panchayat minister Pradip Majumdar and newly-elected MP from Bardhaman Durgapur Kirti Azad were present.
Biswas said, “A bunch of prominent leaders from the BJP and more from the CPM have been keeping in touch with the TMC for the last few days. We’ve set to accept them after getting Mamata Banerjee’s approval.”
Pankaj joined CPM in 1984 and had resigned from his Coal India to get accommodated as a whole-timer, following former CPM politburo member Nirupam Sen’s instructions. He, along with two others, however, was suspended after a CPM commission found them guilty on deviation charges. He, in recent times, had been struggling against CPM’s strategic decisions to confront TMC during the last general elections. Pankaj said, “Most unfortunately, I was failing to convince the CPM leadership that at a time when the BJP has polarized the whole country on communal issues, we needed to be more vocal, but the party not only restrained, rather insisted to counter Mamata Banerjee’s pro-poor welfare schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar, Swastha Sathi. I felt that it’s only a leader like Mamata Banerjee who is capable most to combat BJP’s anarchy. So, I chose to shift.”
The district CPM of West Burdwan today expelled Pankaj bringing charges of political deviation and anti-party activities during the last elections. Gouranga Chatterjee, CPM district secretary said, “Despite repeated cautions, he didn’t rectify, so we chose to expel him.”