Fresh Suman salvo at Trinamool

KOLKATA: A day after he publicly slammed his own party, singer-turned-Trinamool Congress MP Kabir Suman unleashed yet another salvo on Monday, saying he was tired of pursuing MPLAD projects that local Trinamool leaders want to "monopolize".
They want him to "just stay at home and sign the papers", fumed the first-time MP who beat CPM strongman Sujan Chakraborty for the prestigious Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat.
Local party interests were hampering his development programmes, Kabir said on Monday, hours before Trinamool's core committee meeting.
"I am sick and tired of these people. Shovan Chattopadhyay (Kolkata Municipal Corporation borough chairperson and a Mamata Banerjee loyalist) told me I need not go to the villages. He asked me to stay at home and sign the papers. If that is so, why the hell am I an MP? Let the MPLAD be renamed Party-LAD. They want to do whatever they feel like," said the singer, who was one of Mamata's surprise prizefighters in the election.
The singer complained that when he refused to sign on the dotted line, the local leaders hurled abuses at him at public meetings.
Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee was not harsh with Kabir Suman. "I am also not happy with the functioning of the panchayats," she said on Monday. "Suman is an artiste with Left leanings. He is not our party activist. He joined our party a few months ago. There is no need to get alarmed."
Suman's tirade which stunned his partymen was the result of long-pent-up frustration, say insiders. According to Trinamool sources, a section of organizers such as Shovan Chattopadhyay is taking full advantage of Mamata's busy schedule and using the ranks to their individual advantage. For instance, South 24-Parganas zilla parishad chief Samima Seikh, otherwise an "innocent woman", is being controlled by Chattopadhyay, say party insiders.
Suman fumed at the party's reaction to his comments. "Senior party leader Subrata Bakshi told supporters that I am an intellectual and Trinamool wants me as an MP but that the party will not run as I want it. I would ask them to fight the elections and relieve me of this embarrassment. Nobody takes me seriously. Whenever I try to raise an issue, the leaders try to divert it urge me to sing a song instead," said the much-loved singer and political greenhorn.
However, Suman has nothing against Mamata or his colleagues in Parliament Saugata Roy, Mukul Roy and C M Jatua. "I want Mamata to come to power, which is why I want to reach out to the poor with MPLAD programmes. But that is not happening. I tried to tell Mamata on one or two occasions. She told me that my constituency was her constituency, too. But things did not change for the better," said the first-time MP.
Suman's explosive allegations indicate that not all is well with Trinamool's tryst with intellectuals. Before the Lok Sabha polls, there was a well-planned campaign by Mamata to showcase the cultural side of her party by putting artists, actors, singers and writers at the forefront.
Worried by Suman's plainspeak, party secretary general and Leader of the Opposition in assembly Partha Chattopadhyay said: "The party is looking into his complaints. Kabir Suman, as I know him, is a well meaning emotional person. A section of the media is trying to play up his comments. But things are not as they see it."
According to sources, Suman had earlier given vent to his feelings while talking to other MPs in the central hall of Parliament. But these statements were off the record. The individualist that he is, Suman gave a piece of his mind at an Adivasi press meet on Monday, saying the party had turned him into a "slave".
The singer-turned MP wants to establish his identity in Parliament as an individual and not just as a number in the Trinamool bench. "I want to enjoy the right to raise my hand and oppose Union home minister P Chidambaram on issues where I don't agree with him. I have been the most vocal against this party hegemony that stifles the individual. But I must say that I could say all this because the party I belong to is Trinamool Congress. There is no such scope within the CPM," he said.
Suman is not alone. Some other Trinamool MPs in Hooghly, such as Ratna De Nag (who's reportedly not on good terms with Kalyan Bandyopadhyay) and Sucharu Haldar are facing similar problems with local leaders. Seniors have sorted out such misunderstandings earlier and will do so in the days to come. However, the glitches aren't a good sign for the party that is eyeing the CM's chair in 2011.