Friday, May 29, 2026 08:15 [IST]
Last Update: Friday, May 29, 2026 02:49 [IST]
KOLKATA, (IANS): Trinamool Congress MP
Sukhendu Sekhar Roy on Thursday launched a blistering critique of the party’s
functioning, governance failures, corruption allegations, and organisational
culture, following its debacle in the West Bengal Assembly elections.
During an interaction with IANS, the veteran
parliamentarian, who said he would complete 60 years in politics next year,
admitted that the party failed to understand public anger, especially after the
RG Kar controversy and rising concerns over women’s safety, corruption, and
administrative failures.
Roy called the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee
doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital the "writing on the
wall" for the Trinamool. "Many people, including a few of our party
leaders and top leadership of the state police, were involved in hushing up the
case," he stated.
"A very big message had come from the common people.
If we do not pay attention to the warning given by the public, then the result
will naturally be what it is now."
While agreeing that the party's protest against the
Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was correct, he said that
the then Trinamool government was unable to provide relief against it to the
voters despite approaching the courts.
Moreover, he admitted that the people's right to vote was
snatched away from them in many places in West Bengal.
"Many people’s names, including those of genuine
voters, were removed from the voter list. But when people saw that 2.5 lakh
central forces were being deployed, they felt that the right to vote — which
had been snatched away from people in many places — would finally be restored,
and that they would once again be able to exercise their voting rights. They
showed what the game really is," he said.
He accused the Trinamool of giving corruption "an
institutional form".
"From the panchayat level to the highest level — it
became corruption everywhere. What do political workers want? They want to
carry out the party’s political programme and fulfil their responsibilities.
But we had no political agenda, no political schedule left, because we never
allowed any opposition space to exist."
Referring to the minimal seat share of the opposition
parties, the BJP, the CPI-M, and the Congress, he said: "It (Trinamool
government) wanted to create an Opposition-free rule."
He stressed that a democracy cannot function without a
healthy opposition.
Roy added: "Whatever works our government did, it
went against the public. Except for the first five years of Trinamool's regime,
the face of the government changed." He said public anger intensified
after people witnessed the rapid accumulation of wealth among local leaders and
middlemen linked to welfare implementation.
Regarding allegations of I-PAC influencing party
decisions, he claimed that while the organisation was initially brought in for
governance planning and programme implementation, its influence later expanded
into organisational and political decision-making.
"Later, the same people started running the party.
They decided who would get nominations, organisational posts, who would be
removed or kept in the party, and the I-PAC became the decision makers. That
did not happen by itself. Those who brought them gave them such a free hand to
do all this," he alleged.
Roy acknowledged that Trinamool's welfare schemes, such
as 'Lakshmir Bhandar', initially benefited women, but asserted that their
dignity and safety ultimately became bigger electoral issues.
"Women wanted safety more than Lakshmir
Bhandar," he said.
He also said Bengal’s cultural identity as a land that
worships female deities like Durga and Kali made crimes against women
emotionally and politically sensitive.
He asserted that when people got the opportunity, they
delivered such a mandate in response to the Trinamool regime for "not
listening and understanding them".
"Now, since the Trinamool Congress has been removed
from power, the question is, how long will the party survive?"
