The ruling Trinamool Congress held their annual Martyrs' Day event In Kolkata's Dharmatala on Monday and saw a gathering of lakh of party supporters from across the state. While Kolkata Police managed to avoid traffic jams and launched helpline numbers before the event took place, lack of public transport and surge pricing in ride-hailing services.
TMC conducts this day annually as a tribute to the martyrs of 21st July, 1993 violence.
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, her nephew and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee attended the rally along with other party leaders as they slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party at Centre
All About TMC's Martyrs' Day
The annual rally commemorates the death of Youth Congress workers allegedly in police firing in 1993.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was then the leader of the Youth Congress and was leading the demonstration, which came under police firing.
The party had invited the father of Jhantu Ali Sheikh and the parents of Bitan Adhikari on the event. While Havildar Jhantu Ali Shaikh, a 28-year-old soldier from Patharghata village in the Krishnanagar area of Nadia district, was martyred on April 24 during a counterterror operation in the dense forests of Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur district, Bitan Adhikari, hailign from Kolkata was one of the 26 civilians who were shot dead by terrorists during Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
TMC in a post on X wrote, "We honour the departed souls on this solemn day and stand firmly beside their families."
Mamata Banerjee on Monday, addressing the TMC Martyrs' Day rally, gave a clarion call to defeat the saffron party in the 2026 polls and eventually oust the BJP from power at the Centre.
She accused the BJP of unleashing "linguistic terrorism" on Bengalis, asserting that the fight for identity.
Banerjee's speech touched upon a wide range of issues from NRC notices in West Bengal to the "targeting" of Bengalis in BJP-ruled states, including allegedly putting them in detention camps and attempts to remove their names from electoral rolls.
Banerjee also launched a blistering attack on the Election Commission, accusing it of working at the BJP's behest. She accused ECI of hatching a conspiracy to systematically delete names of legitimate voters, particularly minorities and migrants, from the electoral rolls in the state.
The state assembly elections are supposed to happen in 2026 and the issue of regional Bengali identity and its supposes crisis had helped TMC defeat the stronger opponent BJP in the 2021 Assembly elections.
Kolkata Residents On July 21
The government-owned public vehicles including buses and metro trains were running smoothly across the city but the locals majorly rely on privately-owned public transport vehicles that include buses and autos. A lot of these privately-owned vehicles participated in the rallies.
As per sources, many of the routes covered by these privately-owned vehicles were temporarily closed between 9 am to 3pm because the vehicles had to be lent to the ruling party for carrying supporters to Dharmatala.
Ankita Banerjee, who works at Linde India Limited said that she had to leave home early to avoid any traffic issues to reach office in the morning. Banerjee said, "The auto driver I was travelling with said they have been asked to take their vehicles to the rally and their routes will resume after 3 pm".
She added that many of her colleagues opted to travel in their own cars instead of public transport to avoid such troubles.
An office-goer in Garia area of Kolkata told 카지노 India that he had been waiting for an hour for a bus to take him to Salt Lake and had to book a cab using one of the ride-hailing services which showed huge surge-pricing. Given the lack of options he said, "I am paying triple the amount that this distance normally costs but I have no other way."
This highlights the issue of daily wage workers and low-income groups who may not be able to afford surge-pricing or lose pay for reaching late.
When some TMC MPs were approached regarding this issue, none of them responded.
While government schools in the city ran normally, many private schools have either announced an off day for today including Shri Shikshayatan School and others have asked students to join classes virtually.
What Is Kolkata Police Saying?
A senior police officer told PTI that the traffic in and around Kolkata was managed well, with no jams reported due to the rally.
The Kolkata Police implemented a slew of traffic measures, especially in the central part of the city, following the Calcutta High Court order to ensure undisturbed traffic movement on July 21, the officer said.
"We ensured that the Calcutta High Court order was properly followed to maintain smooth traffic without any disruption due to the rally. There was not a single report of any traffic jam from any part of the city and its surrounding areas," the officer of Kolkata Traffic Police was quoted by PTI.
Extra forces and civic volunteers under senior officers were deployed to ensure that the traffic was properly maintained, he reportedly said, adding that the measures taken in this regard paid off.
The Kolkata Police on Saturday launched three helplines for common people facing problems in travelling on July 21.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma, after reviewing arrangements on Saturday, said that the force would do everything possible to comply with the high court directives on the TMC's rally on July 21.
Calcutta HC On The Event
The Calcutta High Court had directed that all processions for the rally will be allowed till 8 am within the Kolkata Police jurisdiction on Monday.
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed that from 9 am to 11 am, the police will ensure there is no traffic congestion on roads leading to the high court and within 5 km of the central business district.
The processions can continue thereafter from 11 am, he directed.
