Kolkata, Sep 29 (IANS) The sudden presence of two suspended Trinamool Congress youth leaders at the Puja Pandal of Santosh Mitra Square, the community Durga Puja Pandal inaugurated by Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, last week, has sparked fresh speculation in the corridors of power in West Bengal.

The development has become even more politically significant as last week was marked by a series of rifts between Kolkata Police and the principal organiser of Santosh Mitra Square Puja, Sajal Ghosh, a BJP councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), with the latter accusing the city police of making all possible attempts to prevent footfall at the pandal.

Now, the presence of the two suspended Trinamool Congress youth leaders, Rajanya Haldar and Prantik Chakraborty, has raised the question of whether the development was just an expression of courtesy or a possible indication of the surfacing of more political gossip in the coming days.

Both Chakraborty and Halder were suspended from the party in September last year, after they floated a short film on social media in the backdrop of the rape and murder of a junior doctor of Kolkata-based R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital within the hospital premises in August last year.

As the social media debates on the short movie started creating immense inconvenience for the Trinamool Congress leadership, both were suspended from their respective posts in the party — Chakraborty as the state vice-president of Trinamool Congress’ student wing, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), and Halder as the vice-president of TMCP’s Jadavpur-Diamond Harbour district committee in South 24 Parganas District.

Again, after the rape of a law student within the premises of her college at Kasba in South Kolkata earlier this year, Halder became vocal against the tendencies among a section of the TMCP’s leaders to sexually exploit younger women activists of the party’s students’ wing.

Reacting to the development, BJP leader Sajal Ghosh stated that Halder was like his younger sister, and she had come there by virtue of that personal relationship.

“There is no need to find politics in everything. She is like my younger sister. At times, we debate on news channels and at times in the political field. We maintain a personal relationship with each other. Others like her also come to visit my puja. This is the time for celebration and not for finding political equations,” said Ghosh.

Halder reciprocated and claimed that she had always treated Ghosh like her elder brother. “In addition, ‘Operation Sindoor’ is an emotional issue for me as an Indian. I had been here in the past also,” she said.

Chakraborty said there was no politics involved over his visit to the said Puja Pandal. ”About 80 per cent of the puja pandals have cut-outs of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. What is wrong with having a cut-out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Santosh Mitra Square? Is it necessary that whoever visits this Puja pandal is politically associated with the BJP? Let us not politicise this issue.” Chakraborty added.

–IANS

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