FORWARD BLOC

Forward Bloc admonishes rebel Hiten

 

COOCH BEHAR, March 8: Without taking any risk of reaction among the lower level activists by taking punitive measures, just before the election, against the rebel leader and outgoing MP, Mr Hiten Barman, the district Forward Bloc admonished him mildly in its urgently convened secretariat meeting held in Cooch Behar today. Mr Barman was, however, absent in the meeting.

After the meeting, a district secretariat member and also a state secretariat member of the Forward Bloc, Mr Akshoy Thakur said the district committee received no resignation letter from Mr Barman, who is incidentally the president of district committee. Without such a letter the district unit cannot recommend any measures against him to the state unit. The state committee can act on its own if they receive such letter, as he is also a state committee member, Mr Thakur said.

In presence of other senior leaders like Mr Paresh Adhikary, Mr Dipak Sarkar and Mr Debashis Banik, Mr Thakur, who is also the Cooch Behar (West) MLA, said, since 2007 the party was running under a joint leadership and Mr Barman presided all the meetings. He never said anything like practice of autocracy against the district secretary, Mr Udayan Guha. Now, the baseless allegations are his very own and motivated ones. His act was condemned in the district secretariat meeting today, Mr Thakur said. Though he was intimated properly he abstained from attending today's meeting, Mr Thakur added.

Several attempts to contact Mr Barman over telephone failed.

Earlier, the Trinamul Congress, the Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party and the Janabadi Forward Bloc invited the dissident FB leader and the sitting MP (Lok Sabha) Mr Hiten Barman to join their parties. Mr Barman however denied taking any decision without consulting his close associates.

It may be recalled that Mr Barman, the outgoing MP, sent his resignation from the party on Thursday evening. He alleged that during the process of selection of candidate the district party secretary Mr Udayan Guha never discussed it with him though he was the president of the party's district unit. Replacing him with Mr Nripendra Nath Roy was not done following party norms, he added. He never did anything against the interest of the party but the secretary always tried to corner him, he alleged.

The veteran FB leader also alleged that Mr Guha was running the party as an autocratic leader. No discussions were made in district party unit over changing of Lok Sabha candidate, he said.

Mr Udayan Guha had said on Friday that the district committee entrusted the state committee to select the candidate. Mr Barman too was a signatory in that resolution, he claimed. On the allegation of autocracy in the party Mr Guha had questioned when Mr Barman realised it – before or after 3 March, because the name of Mr Nripendra Nath Roy was declared as the candidate on that day.

 

PHOTO : District FB secretary Mr Udayan Guha with Lok Sabha candidate Mr Nripendra Nath Roy, after the district secretariat meeting. In Cooch Behar on Sunday.