Grassroot TMC leaders face cut-money blowback in Bengal: ‘Can’t return home’

On June 18, with the BJP rapidly making inroads in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked her party leaders to end the practice of “cut money” and return them to the people.
On the night of June 23, Pradip Chakraborty, a block secretary of the Trinamool Congress, his wife Reena, their son, daughter-in-law and grandson fled their home at Mangalkot tehsil in Purba Bardhaman district to take shelter in a room inside a building provided by the party. “This is my home now. We are waiting for higher-ups in the party to tell us what to do. In my entire political career, I have never seen anything like this, it is spreading like wildfire,” says Chakraborty.
The 57-year-old is among the scores of Trinamool leaders at the grassroots on the run, hounded by residents in their villages to return the “cut money”, or illegal commissions, they had allegedly taken to “facilitate” the grant of central and state government schemes.

More videos

See All