Agartala: Trinamool Congress on Wednesday removed its Tripura state president Subal Bhowmik in a sudden move within a year of his entry into the party.
A party statement said, “Subal Bhowmik has been relieved from his duties as state president of Tripura TMC with immediate effect. Rajib Banerjee, State in-charge, and Sushmita Dev, Rajya Sabha MP shall look after the functioning of the party till a new State President is appointed.”
According to a report, Bhowmik has been trying to return to the BJP, though he is yet to receive the final nod.
The matter would be finalized during the visit of the BJP national president J P Nadda on Saturday, as a section of leaders close to former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and incumbent Union minister of state for empowerment and social justice Pratima Bhoumik were opposed to Subal Bhowmik’s re-entry.
However, both the Chief Minister and BJP state president Dr Manik Saha and Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma are in favor of his return, sources said.
Subal Bhowmik deserted the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections following a rift with Deb after the then chief minister turned down his candidature from the West Tripura constituency, the sources said.
Subal Bhowmik then joined Congress and contested against Pratima Bhoumik from West Tripura but lost.
There were allegations of “large-scale rigging and poll manipulation” by the ruling party, and the Election Commission of India had to hold a re-poll in 168 polling stations out of total of 1679 in the West Tripura parliamentary constituency.
Just before the urban local bodies election in December last year, Subal Bhowmik left Congress and joined TMC overnight.
TMC sources said party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee were not happy with Bhowmik’s performance in the subsequent elections and organisational activities.
“The party reviewed Bhowmik’s performance at several levels including taking feedback from the grassroots level workers and decided to remove him from the president’s post. TMC will re-launch its activity under a new state president with new zeal. There is nothing personal, whatever is happening will be good for the party and the people of the state,” said TMC state in-charge and former West Bengal Minister Rajib Banerjee.
He stated that TMC had performed well in urban bodies’ elections including Agartala Municipal Corporation where it finished second. These elections were directly managed by West Bengal leaders. But in the by-elections to four assembly constituencies in June, TMC came up with a “miserable performance” under Bhowmik’s leadership, with the party organization not functioning properly.
“Despite our reservations in the selection of candidates, we accepted all of his proposals including the election management strategies. There was no dearth of resources in the election – whenever and whatever was demanded by the party was sanctioned but the result was disastrous. So, now TMC will start with new faces in an aggressive mode,” Banerjee said.
