Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Discontent in Bengal Congress over ticket to former Left MP with Nandigram taint
Lakshman Seth has been fielded by the Congress to contest from his home turf Tamluk in East Midnapore district, where he had won the Lok Sabha polls in 1998, 1999 and 2004.
Many leaders and workers of the Congress’ West Bengal unit are unhappy with the party’s decision to field former CPI(M) lawmaker Lakshman Seth, widely perceived to be the key man triggering the prolonged resistance of villagers in Nandigram.
The violence in Nandigram, a rural area in the East Midnapore district of West Bengal, was the single biggest factor leading to the downfall of the 34-year-old Left Front government in the state.
Seth has been given the ticket to contest from his home turf Tamluk in East Midnapore district, where he had won the Lok Sabha elections in 1998, 1999 and 2004. In the 2009 general elections, Seth was trounced by Trinamool Congress candidate Suvendu Adhikari, who is currently the state’s transport minister.
Veteran Congressman and leader of the opposition in Bengal assembly, Abdul Mannan, was one of the first leaders to voice his opposition to Seth’s joining the party on March 28 as well as his candidature that was announced on March 29.
“I intimated my party high-command about my objection to both Seth’s inclusion in the party and nomination. But my arguments were ignored. I think that ordinary Congress workers would give a fitting reply in an appropriate time,” said Mannan.
A senior leader of the Congress’ West Bengal unit, who did not wish to be named, said that besides Mannan, former state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also objected to Seth’s inclusion and nomination. However, Chowdhury refused to comment.
President of the Congress’ West Bengal unit, Somen Mitra, said they did not have anything do with the decision to include Seth in the party.
“It was the decision of the party high command to take Seth in the party and nominate him as a candidate. He was a three-time MP and knows many persons in Delhi. It was not necessary that WBPCC recommended his name,” said Mitra on Thursday.
Seth could not be reached for comment.
Since the Nandigram violence, in which 14 villagers were killed in the firing by police on March 14, 2007, Seth’s political career had gone into a tailspin.
In March 2014, the Communist Party of India(Marxist) expelled him, following which he set up an outfit Bharat Nirman Party. But it made no headway, and in October 2016 he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that expelled him in the second half of 2018. He also tried to join the Trinamool Congress but without success.
Seth was believed to be the key man behind a notice issued in the East Midnapore district to acquire about 10,000 acres of farmland in Nandigram for a petrochemical hub, triggering a prolonged armed resistance by the locals.
