Trinamool’s latest party rule: Don’t marry CPM members, don’t even talk to them

TNN

Kolkata, 16 April 2012: The Trinamool Congress has asked its members not to marry any CPM leader or anyone even distantly related to them.

 

Conveying the ruling party’s message at a programme in Habra in North 24-Parganas, food supplies minister Jyotipriya Mullick said: "Don’t mingle with the CPM. Don’t even talk to them if you meet them at a local chai (tea) shop. We have vowed to boycott the CPM socially. Our workers must make sure that nobody in their family enters into any marital relationship with any CPM leader or supporter."

 

The minister advised the audience, many of whom happened to be the CPM supporters, to avoid any relative who had anything to do with the communist party. Even as chief minister Mamata Banerjee is aware that several local CPM workers have been joining her party even since the Left’s debacle in the 2011 Assembly elections, her party has been talking about the fatwa for quite sometime now.

 

But Mullick, who is also the Trinamool Congress’ district observer in North 24-Parganas, made the diktat public by making it the major party of his speech on Sunday evening. Among those present at the function was Trinamool M P Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

 

The minister told the gathering that Trinamool Congress workers must work in the most dedicated manner ahead of the panchyat elections since the party would probably go it alone.

 

The panchayat elections are due next year and the Trinamool’s ally in the government, the Congress, has already declared its intentions to fight the rural polls alone. The Congress leadership in the centre has, however, remained noncommittal on the issue.

 

Even as the Trinamool leaders present at Habra’s programme talked about a possible separation from the Congress during the panchayat polls, they mostly concentrated on revving up solidarity against the CPM, which, according to Mullick was the "main enemy".

 

"We must continue with our tirade against the CPM and make all necessary steps to isolate the party that has destroyed growth in West Bengal for the last 34 years," the minishter added.