Congress turncoats Somen Mitra and Sudip Bandopadhyay, now in fray on Trinamool tickets, face ire of their former and current party workers

Somen Mitra and Sudip Bandopadhyay, both state Congress stalwarts who switched sides to join the Trinamool just before the Lok Sabha election dates were announced, are faced with a double whammy.

As if taking on CPM heavyweights were not enough, the two have to grapple with an undercurrent of opposition from sections of party workers of both the Congress and the Trinamool, which have since joined hands.

Mitra, a former state Congress chief, is contesting from Diamond Harbour while Bandopadhyay is in the fray for Kolkata North, both on Trinamool tickets.

Despite an alliance between the Congress and Trinamool, Congress workers are reluctant to work for a leader who abandoned them just over a month ago and the Trinamool cadres are yet to accept their new leaders.

Both Mitra and Bandopadhyay were Congress MLAs and were expelled from the party, before being dismissed from the state Assembly by the Speaker after they left the Congress. Mitra is contesting the Lok Sabha election for the first time.

“Though we have been asked to campaign for Trinamool candidates, it is difficult to ask and explain to a Congress worker to join a rally or campaign for a leader who had just abandoned them for an election ticket,” said Shibaji Singha Roy, general secretary of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.

“Just the other day, we demanded the expulsion of the two leaders from our party and wanted them barred from the state Assembly. Now we have to campaign for them. Our workers are asking if the common voter will take us with our two-faced attitude. Yet, we are trying to make our workers understand,” Roy added.

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