Kolkata: Trinamool Congress on Monday performed ‘khuti puja’ in front of Victoria House in Esplanade, where the party observes martyrs’ day on July 21. TMC state president Subrata Bakshi officially launched the setting up of the makeshift structure by breaking a coconut.
Party seniors like Joy Prakash Majumdar, Santanu Sen and Sudip Polle were present at the occasion.Preparations for the event began with the dais being set up.
Bakshi emphasised the significance of July 21, recalling CM Mamata Banerjee’s political journey during her time with Youth Congress when she had held the protest march to Writers’ Building from Esplanade on July 21, 1993, demanding that voter ID cards be made the only required document for voting to put a stop to CPM’s “scientific rigging”.
A police contingent stopped the protesters near the Tea Board office, a stone’s throw from Writers’ Building. As the crowd tried to break the police cordon, a lathicharge ensued, stones were pelted, teargas shells were burst and cops opened fire, killing 13 Congress workers.
“Thirteen of our workers were killed in that firing. We still say today that the blood of the martyrs will not go in vain,” Bakshi said.
This July 21 will be the first time CM Banerjee will address a crowd in public since Trinamool secured a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections and bypolls.