What happened
Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee used the Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata to ask parties in the INDIA bloc, including the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to put aside differences and unite against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mamata Banerjee linked the rally to the memory of the 13 Youth Congress workers killed in police firing on 21 July 1993. The same day also saw separate rival and breakaway rallies by other political groups, showing that Opposition and political mobilisation in West Bengal remain divided.
Background and earlier position
The annual Martyrs’ Day rally is a recurring political event in West Bengal and is closely associated with Trinamool Congress mobilisation. In the current political context, the INDIA bloc has often projected itself as a broad Opposition platform against the BJP, but seat-sharing, leadership questions, and state-level rivalries have continued to limit full unity.
What changed now
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