At Esplanade rally today, a rejuvenated TMC wants to show Writers’ is not too far

Miles away from the rising political temperatures in Delhi, a completely different atmosphere of political revelry has started building up in Kolkata, where CPM’s arch-rival in the state, Trinamool Congress, is leaving no stone unturned to make Monday’s public rally at Esplanade a show of strength and its rising popularity.

Boosted by the party’s spectacular performance in the recently-concluded panchayat and civic elections in the state in which Trinamool Congress made significant inroads in the CPM’s stronghold, the party wants to project itself as the strongest political force to challenge Left’s rule in the state.

Huge cut-outs of Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee, banners and welcome arches have propped in every part of the city leading to the rally ground. The rally is being held to mark the 15th anniversary of police firing on a Pradesh Youth Congress protest march led by Banerjee in which 13 people had died.

“Already 30,000 people have arrived in the city from different parts of the state. I hope at least 5 lakh people will turn up at the rally. And this will mark the beginning of the end of the misrule of CPM,” Banerjee told mediapersons at her Kalighat residence on Sunday.

Eminent people from all walks of life, including West Bengal Progressive Indira Congress leader Somen Mitra, former Congress leader Atish Sinha, singer Kabir Suman, playwright Bratya Basu, human rights activist Sujata Bhadra are expected to attend the rally.

“Our activists are bubbling with enthusiasm and we are working hard to make the rally a success. Thousands of our supporters have already arrived and tomorrow more will come. We have been able to defeat CPM in the villages and now we realise that Left can be vanquished,” said Ranjit Dey, a Trinamool Youth Congress leader.

On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of Trinamool workers, who came here from different parts of the state, gathered at Banerjee’s residence to catch a glimpse of their leader. Banerjee obliged her supporters and came out of her room to meet them. Security personnel, however, had a harrowing time to control the crowd who jostled with each other to come close to her.

“I have been attending the rally for the last eight years, but I had never seen such an enthusiasm and the preparation in such a mammoth scale ever before ,” said Sanat Mandal, a Trinamool worker from South 24 Parganas.