State Congress has decided to hold an all-party meeting in the memory of late PCC chief Somen Mitra on 26 August. Stating this former PCC chief and Rajya Sabha member, Pradip Bhattacharya said the meeting will take place at Netaji Indoor Stadium where the participants on the podium, as well as in the hall, will be requested to maintain social distancing in the backdrop of Covid-19.

The memorial meeting in which leaders cutting across the ideological divide will pay tribute to the late leader will differ from similar meetings held in the past. Neither the memorial meeting of the first chairman of Left Front, Promod Dasgupta nor the one held in memory of popular Congress leader, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi had witnessed the organisers cementing electoral ties with one of the participants in the sidelines of the meeting.

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The PCC leadership and its front counterpart who are already holding joint agitation programmes against ruling Trinamul Congress are likely to utilise this occasion to iron out differences, it was learnt. Inter-party ties were further strengthened after Dr Sankar Sen Safe Home for coronavirus patients with mild or no symptoms at Nimta in North-24-Parganas has an oxygen centre named after Somen Mitra.

Though it was once unthinkable to connect a leading Congress leader with a project mooted by CPI-M, this association is being considered to be a tribute to Mitra’s effort to promote Congress- Left unity, CPI-M MLA Tanmay Bhattacharjee said. Named after a former power minister of the Left Front regime, the safe home, an eight-bedded facility, is scheduled to be inaugurated by a leader of Congress Legislature Party, Abdul Mannan and his Left counterpart, Sujan Chakraborty