The rally may also be a litmus check for Mamata Banerjee’s capacity to mobilise crowds after the Trinamool Congress misplaced the 2026 Meeting polls and was later hit by rise up inside the get together. File
| Photograph Credit score: ANI
The annual Martyrs’ Day observance on July 21 this yr is about to develop into a present of energy for rival factions of the Trinamool Congress. With lower than 48 hours to go, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction are giving ending touches to their respective rallies.
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A number of leaders of the Ritabrata Banerjee faction, together with Arup Roy, whom the group has nominated because the get together chairperson, visited Mayo Street and took inventory of preparations. Former Ministers Chandrima Bhattacharya, Aroop Biswas and Firhad Hakim have been additionally current on the venue. The leaders mentioned that they’d provide sombre respect to the martyrs and there could be no “music and dance” as was prevalent when Trinamool Congress was in energy.
Former Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee will go to the venue of her rally in entrance of the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata’s Maidan space on Monday (July 20, 2026). Whereas Ms. Banerjee used to deal with supporters outdoors Victoria Home until final yr, this time the administration has denied permission to any political group to carry a rally on the web site. The Calcutta Excessive Courtroom has permitted the Mamata Banerjee group to carry its gathering outdoors the Birla Planetarium.
In the meantime, Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who, together with 19 different get together Lok Sabha MPs, has merged with the little-known Nationalist Residents Occasion of India (NCPI), mentioned on Sunday (July 19) the faction would observe Martyrs’ Day at Rajghat in New Delhi. Dr. Ghosh Dastidar requested as to why Manish Gupta, who was the Chief Secretary of West Bengal in 1993 when police opened fireplace on Youth Congress activists, was made a Minister through the Trinamool Congress regime.
The background
Martyrs’ Day or Shaheed Divas is noticed yearly in West Bengal to commemorate the 13 Youth Congress staff killed in police firing on July 21, 1993, through the Left Entrance regime. Ms. Banerjee, then a Congress chief, had organised a march to the Writers’ Constructing (the State Secretariat through the Left regime), demanding that voter identification playing cards be made the only real necessary doc for voting. The protest turned violent, and the police opened fireplace leaving 13 lifeless.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Subhankar Sarkar additionally questioned why Manish Gupta was “rewarded by the Mamata Banerjee authorities as a substitute of being held accountable”. Mr. Sarkar mentioned a number of Congress leaders would attend the get together’s gathering on July 21.
Present of energy
The rallies are more likely to be a present of energy for all competing political groupings. Whereas the Ritabrata Banerjee group has the help of the vast majority of Trinamool MLAs, it stays to be seen how the folks settle for the formation. The Congress, whose vote share in West Bengal has been round 5%, and is hoping for a revival, must be certain that to deliver folks out of their properties to listen to Mr. Sarkar and different Congress leaders communicate on July 21.
The rally may also be a litmus check for Ms. Banerjee’s capacity to mobilise crowds after the Trinamool Congress misplaced the 2026 Meeting polls and was later hit by rise up inside the get together.
Printed – July 19, 2026 10:36 pm IST
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