Kolkata: Kasba has been a hotbed of intra-party clashes, but not a single Trinamool Congress functionary, including Sushanta Ghosh, is willing to believe that this audacious and amateurish attack on a serving councillor and borough chairman is the fallout of a factional feud.
It's an open secret that there is a long-playing turf war between two factions of the party. There was political jockeying over control of the vast swathe of land from south of Eastern Metropolitan Bypass-PC Connector to Garfa. Various local factors come into play, including the mushrooming of standalone buildings and high-rises.
"There are small skirmishes in any big family. Similarly, there are some problems with party colleagues, but I don't think this attack has anything to do with any intra-party feud. I seriously can't understand why it happened and how the attackers had the audacity to attack me outside my home in the ward that I built," said Sushanta Ghosh, a day after the attack on Saturday.
He added, "Kasba is becoming modern and cosmopolitan. The number of non-Bengalis is increasing significantly. Politicians, while working for people, often make many friends and enemies. Looks like I made some enemies, and someone has done this to fulfil his own vendetta. A contract killer from Bihar was hired for this job. Surely, someone local is involved. I don't have direct political connections with Bihar, and I don't think my party does either. Why would anyone hire a contract killer unless there is a big mastermind behind it? Police should find it out."
Ghosh started off as an active party worker during Congress days and was part of the Congress delegation during the July 21, 1993 Writers' Building agitation when 14 Congress workers were killed in police firing. Ghosh also suffered a bullet injury then. He switched to TMC during its formation and was active in Kasba and other parts of south Kolkata for the next 10 years before he became councillor of ward 107 in 2010, from where he served two terms. But Ghosh was asked to vacate ward 107 (where the incident took place) and move to ward 108 due to delimitation (ward 107 is now reserved for women) in the 2021 KMC elections.
This seems to have exacerbated the matter, with one-time protégé Lipika Manna becoming the councillor of 107 and then becoming a challenger to Ghosh's rule. Manna quickly seemed to have aligned herself with the opposition bloc, leading to several skirmishes, including bombs and sometimes bullets as well.
Even during Kali Puja, it was alleged Manna's supporters ran a rampage at a puja pandal patronised by Ghosh. Reacting to such aspersions, Manna told reporters on Saturday: "Where would factional conflict arise from? We all follow the ideals of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. I've never heard him (Sushanta) saying anything against me. We both belong to the same party. A handful of people are maligning me and politicising the affair for their own benefit."
Mayor Firhad Hakim, who was one of the first to react and who also visited Ghosh's Kasba home to meet his wife, also dismissed possibility of intra-party feud. "There is no factional feud here. There is only the Mamata faction, and we all are her workers. This is a criminal case involving hardcore criminals. But this is a major intelligence failure on the part of the police. Our CM has asked cops to recover such arms and arrest interstate criminals. But even then, how can so many criminals and arms enter Bengal?" Hakim asked.