ElectionNews – Congress Plans Separate July 21 Protest as Political Focus Shifts in West Bengal
ElectionNews – The West Bengal unit of the Congress has decided to hold its own protest programme on July 21, marking a significant political shift after the recent Assembly election results. The move comes as the party seeks to present an alternative narrative to the annual Martyrs’ Day rally organised by the Trinamool Congress, which has observed the day since its formation in 1998.
Congress Revives Its Own July 21 Observance
July 21 carries deep political significance in West Bengal. The date commemorates the police firing incident of 1993, when 13 Youth Congress workers lost their lives during protests under the then CPI(M)-led Left Front government headed by late Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.
Before the creation of the Trinamool Congress by Mamata Banerjee in 1998, the Congress had traditionally organised programmes to remember those who died in the incident. After the political split, the annual observance became closely associated with the Trinamool Congress and evolved into one of the party’s largest political gatherings.
Following the party’s recent electoral setback in the Assembly elections, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee has announced plans to organise its own programme on the same day.
Demand to Reopen the 1993 Police Firing Records
Unlike the Trinamool Congress event, the Congress protest will focus on seeking fresh scrutiny of the official records linked to the 1993 firing. The party has urged the newly formed state government under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari to reopen files concerning the administrative decisions taken during the incident.
State Congress president Suvankar Sarkar said that former West Bengal Home Secretary Manish Gupta played a key administrative role at the time and that the public deserves complete transparency regarding the events surrounding the police action.
According to Sarkar, the state government should immediately release documents connected to the case so that citizens can understand the decisions made by the administration and establish the full sequence of events leading to the firing.
Questions Raised Over Earlier Government’s Stand
Congress leaders have also questioned why the Trinamool Congress government, which remained in power from 2011 to 2026, did not pursue a comprehensive inquiry into the role of Manish Gupta despite his later association with the party.
A senior state Congress leader argued that the absence of a detailed investigation over the past fifteen years has left several questions unanswered. The party believes that making official records public would help ensure accountability and strengthen public confidence in democratic institutions.
Manish Gupta’s Political Journey
After retiring from the bureaucracy, Manish Gupta joined the Trinamool Congress and entered electoral politics in 2011. He contested from the Jadavpur Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas during the election that ended the Left Front’s 34-year rule in West Bengal.
In his first Assembly election, Gupta defeated the then Chief Minister, late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, by a margin of more than 16,000 votes. He later served as the state’s Power Minister in the first Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet between 2011 and 2016.
However, his political fortunes changed in the 2016 Assembly election when he lost the Jadavpur seat to CPI(M) candidate Sujan Chakraborty by a margin exceeding 14,000 votes. Following the defeat, the Trinamool Congress nominated him to the Rajya Sabha, where he continued his public life in Parliament.