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Mamata Banerjee preps for first virtual martyrs’ day, BJP calls it a farce
Over the years, the rally emerged as a symbol of the TMC’s struggle since its birth in 1998 and serves as a platform from where Banerjee sends out messages and declares future plans.
With Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee preparing to observe martyrs’ day, her party’s biggest annual road show held in memory of the 13 youth Congress workers killed in police firing in Kolkata on July 21, 1993, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bengal unit on Monday upped the ante by releasing a list of 93 party workers killed in political clashes since 2013 and said it will observe the day as ‘the day of farce’.
Banerjee was a Youth Congress leader in 1993 and led an agitation on July 21against the then Left Front government in Bengal. Over the years, the rally emerged as a symbol of the TMC’s struggle since its birth in 1998 and serves as a platform from where Banerjee sends out messages and declares future plans.
Held at Esplanade in the heart of Kolkata, TMC’s martyrs’ day rally is known to be the biggest crowd puller in the state but this year it will be held virtually because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Banerjee will address people on social media from her office. Giant screens and monitors are being installed in public places and TMC offices across the state. TMC workers have been asked to raise the party flag forming small groups.
Last year, the rally was held after the BJP won 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats. The day is important for the TMC this year because Banerjee is likely to make important announcements aimed at the crucial assembly polls in 2021 as the BJP has set an agenda to win 200 of the 294 assembly seats.
“When Banerjee was not in power she used to talk of struggling for people now her party and her government bulldozes the poor. We will observe the day as the day of farce,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh who also released a booklet containing details of some incidents in which BJP workers were killed.
“Such statements can be made only by the leader of a party that never struggled. Our martyrs’ were all common people for whom Mamata Banerjee has worked all her life,” said state power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay.
Having lost 18 seats to the BJP mainly because of a huge shift in Left votes in the Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee last year called the saffron force “CPI(M) in new bottle” in her martyrs’ day speech. TMC leaders said the situation has changed since then and she is likely to focus on the BJP alone on Tuesday.
