ELECTION

Unity wind blowing over Cooch Behar

COOCH BEHAR, March 22: The supporters of the Congress and Trinamul Congress have experienced a taste of unity today.

The Trinamul Congress organised a party convention at Sukanta Mancha in Cooch Behar today. The Congress too held a similar programme at Paromita Bhavan. From there, the district Congress leaders appeared at Sukanta Mancha with a large number of supporters and the auditorium turned over crowded. The overwhelmed Trinamul leaders welcomed them.

In his address, a senior AICC member, HM Fazle Haque said there was no difference between the two parties. The slogans and ideology are also similar. Once the party got divided for some reasons but it may unite again in near future. The two parties should follow the path of unity for the next civic polls and the Assembly elections too. The supporters of both the parties cheerfully welcomed his speech.

The leaders including district Congress president Mr Biren Kundu, district Trinamul Congress president Mr Rabi Ghosh and state and district level leaders of both the parties hoped that the unity will come down to the booth level to uproot the Left Front.

It was declared that the district presidents will talk over joint campaign strategy and joint committees will be formed to conduct the campaign drive in the district.

The Congress-Trinamul alliance candidate for the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha constituency, Mr Arghya Roy Pradhan sought blessings from the leaders of the two parties. He was the main attraction of today's joint programme.

During the joint programme the senior leaders and supporters were found recalling the days of the united Congress.

The Left Front partners are also anxious about unity. Yesterday, a programme was held at Maharaja Nripendra Narayan Memorial Hall in Dinhata. State industries minister Mr Nirupam Sen was the chief speaker there. Leaders of the CPI-M, the Forward Bloc, the CPI and the RSP too attended the programme. The senior CPI-M leader, Mr Sen devoted the most part of his address on the need of unity among the LF partners. Without united effort it is hard for the FB candidate Mr Nripendra Nath Roy to retain the seat that is of the FB for a long, the leaders said.

As the relation between the CPI-M and the Forward Bloc was never cordial in this district it may affect this time the fate of the FB candidate. For this reason the unity is necessary more than earlier occasions, many LF leaders observed.