In a strange turn of events in West Bengal ahead of the much-talked-about assembly polls, Trinamool Congress unveiled a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Kharagpur on Tuesday.
The outlandish political event took place at Lenin Park in Kharagpur’s block number 20 when local MLA Pradip Sarkar unveiled the Marxist icon’s sculpture.
After dethroning the Left Front regiment in 2011, TMC is known to have celebrated the May Day as well. But a party legislator disclosing a statue of one of the most significant leftists and garlanding it is something unheard of.
“Lenin should not be associated with a single party. He is an inspiration to workers across the world. Our party works beyond the domain of partisan politics. That’s why we have called the left leadership as well,” Sarkar said.
BJP, meanwhile, hurled a common attack on both TMC and the left parties. Demanding a statue of Shyama Prasad Mookerjee instead of the former Soviet Union premier, local BJP leadership said that the other parties had come together to form an alliance, forgetting their ideologies and promises to people.
The left leaders have refused the allegations and said that they were happy with the gesture from TMC. They hoped that the West Bengal-governing party would build Lenin’s statue across the state.
According to local media, the park was established in the 70s during the Congress regime under former Chief Minister Siddhartha Shankar Roy.
However, with the change of tide in Bengal politics, the park was left in the ruins. Following requests from citizens, the local municipal authorities decided to renovate it and unveil a new statue of Lenin.