Hot on the heels of its resounding victory in the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, followed by a sweep in the Assembly bypolls last week, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is all set for the July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata’s Dharmatala area, the biggest political event in its annual calendar.
The rally will see the first public address by party chairperson and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after the poll triumphs. Apart from the TMC top leadership, including party number two Abhishek Banerjee, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav is also expected to address the rally. “We invited Akhilesh. If the weather remains okay, he will come,” Banerjee said on Saturday. Party insiders said the CM had invited Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav too but he is now abroad. Some representatives of Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) may also attend the event.
Before arriving at the rally venue, Akhilesh is scheduled to meet Banerjee at her Kalighat residence. “After the rally, Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, and Akhilesh Yadav may hold a meeting on the Opposition’s strategy for the Budget Session of Parliament (which begins on Monday),” said a TMC leader.
For several years now, Banerjee has used the rally pulpit to set the TMC’s roadmap for the next 12 months. Over the years, important leaders of other parties have also joined the TMC on the Shaheed Diwas stage. The Shaheed Diwas stage has also been important to the TMC for other reasons. For example, in 2008, the TMC, riding the success of the Singur and Nandigram movements, gained a huge boost when Congress leader and Banerjee’s arch-rival Somen Mitra joined the party.
“This year, the main focus will be on measures for rectification within the party and the preparations for the 2026 Assembly polls,” said a senior TMC leader, adding, “The presence of Akhilesh and other INDIA alliance leaders will be a good advertisement for the party.”
Despite the resounding poll victories, the TMC brass has faced criticism over recent incidents involving mob justice meted out by kangaroo courts involving some mid-level party leaders. “Mamata Banerjee may send a strong message to these bahubali leaders who have emerged in many pockets of the state, as well as to those who are giving shelter to these bahubalis,” said a senior TMC leader.
Meanwhile, some sources said former Kolkata Mayor Shovan Chatterjee could be a surprise presence on the dais. Chatterjee resigned from the TMC and joined the BJP in August 2019 but distanced himself from the party after it denied him the ticket for the 2021 Assembly elections. The speculation about Chatterjee’s return was fuelled after his meeting earlier this month with senior TMC leaders Kunal Ghosh and Aroop Biswas.
Following the party’s formation in 1998, Shaheed Diwas became the TMC’s signature annual event as it allowed the party to lay claim to a legacy of anti-CPI(M) politics and create a narrative that it is the most resolute political force standing up to the Left in West Bengal.
The importance of Shaheed Diwas
In the 1984 Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee, then in the Congress, created ripples by defeating prominent CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee from the Left party’s bastion Jadavpur. Six years later in August 1990, she emerged as a focal point for the Congress in the state after a vicious attack by CPI(M) workers in south Kolkata. The 1990 attack showed that whether by accident or design, the CPI(M) had begun viewing Banerjee as a threat.
On July 21, 1993, the state Youth Congress, then led by Banerjee, organised a “Writers’ Abhijaan (March to the state secretariat, Writers’ Building)”, demanding that the voter ID be made the sole document required for voting. At the time, people could use ration cards as identity proof for voting. The Congress raised this demand to put an end to alleged false voting by the Left.
The plan that day was for Congress workers to lay siege to the state secretariat. By then, Banerjee had demonstrated her crowd-pulling ability by holding a successful Youth Congress rally at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground. But then CM Jyoti Basu had already announced that he would not allow the state secretariat to be taken over by the protesters. When the police stopped one of the processions, a scuffle ensued and a few people started throwing stones. The police resorted to lathi-charge and subsequently opened fire, killing 13 Congress workers.
From the following year, July 21 began to be marked by the Congress as Shaheed Diwas. When Banerjee left the party along with a large section of the state Congress to launch the TMC, the baton of marking the day was carried over to the new party.
After the 2011 Assembly election win, Banerjee held her victory rally at the Brigade Parade Ground on July 21. It was the only time she held the rally in any place other than Esplanade East, the usual site of the rally.
Last Monday, TMC state president Subrata Bakshi inaugurated the construction of the makeshift stage in front of Victoria House by breaking a coconut. Three stages are being set up — a 52 ft by 24 ft main stage where the party brass, guests, MPs, MLAs and ministers will be seated; a 48 ft by 24 ft second stage for party councillors; and a 40 ft by 24 ft third stage for the family of the martyrs.
Throughout this week, district-level leaders, including MLA and MPs, began preparations for the rally by organising small marches and meeting people to appeal to them to participate in the rally.
