Trinamool replaces its organisational observer for North Bengal

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Monday replaced its organisational observer for the eight Lok Sabha seats in North Bengal, Power Minister Arup Biswas, with state Minister and Kolkata Mayor, Firhad Hakim.

Party sources said the decision was prompted by the party’s dissatisfactory results in the eight Lok Sabha seats in North Bengal, as compared to its impressive performance in the remaining 34 constituencies in the state.

In North Bengal, Trinamool only won in Cooch Behar, while the Congress secured victory in Maldaha Dakshin, as the BJP retained its hold over the remaining six seats — Raiganj, Balurghat, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, and Maldaha Uttar.

In 2019, the Congress won Maldaha-Dakshin, while the remaining seven seats went to the BJP as the Trinamool drew a blank.

Sources said that although the performance had been marginally better this time compared to 2019, the top party leadership felt it could have been better had the organisational lapses been addressed since the beginning.

There are complaints that often the district and block-level leaderships did not present the proper picture of the ground-level realities to the party high command.

Sources said that the Congress-Left Front strengthening their organisational bases in North Bengal was also overlooked.

In Raiganj and Maldaha Uttar, the dent made by the Congress candidates in the anti-BJP Muslim votes ultimately smoothened the path for the BJP to win the elections.

Even issues of infighting in the party were not addressed properly, the sources said.