The missing man since 2008, gave Congress a great miss
KOLKATA : Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi who didn’t live since 2008, as ill luck would have it and petered out only yesterday gave Congress a chief ministerial candidature a miss! And tributes from all quarters didn’t suffice to describe his stature in present Bengal political faces, especially after demise of CPI(M) stalwart Jyoti Basu.
If a faceless Opposition has for long been adding to the advantage of present TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, if Dasmunshi didn’t spend his days in comatose in silence of agony before he actually died, the Bengal Opposition would not have been so hopelessly faceless in emerging politics of alliance.
Though perfectly trained under the thesis of dynastic rites of the Congress, last most popular Congress leader in Bengal would have given his petering out party in Bengal a good chance.
Incidentally, Bengal Congress packed with unmannerly leaders, once argued with former state president Saumen Mitra and gave out party documents to this present writer which Mitra didn’t want!
“If Priya-da (as Dasmunsi was affectionately called), lived to see us in the present crisis, he would have been acceptable as an alternative chief ministerial candidate,’’ a senior State Congress leader said, and adding, “it’s all a big miss for all of us.’’
Let’s not go into the ifs and buts of history, but certainly Priya-da was an acceptable face,’’ said a senior CPI(M) leader, on the condition of anonymity.But then let’s not try to be fatalists but history may not so easily repeat where ability and experience and efficiency combine so matchingly,’’ said a senior regretful CPI leader.
