He was one of the three youth faces launched by the CPI(M) in West Bengal during the 2024 Lok Sabha election as the party’s Gen-Next. Two years down the lane, one of them, 35-year-old Pratikur Rehman, is on his way out of the party.
He, however, declined to comment on the reasons for quitting the party. “Whatever I want to say, I will say within the party, not outside,” he told mediapersons.
Speculations of Rahman joining the ruling TMC intensified after TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh shared Rahman’s purported resignation letter on social media.
In the purported resignation letter, Rahman wrote that he “could not adjust” to the recent developments in the CPI(M).
Reacting to the development, CPI(M) Central Committee member Minakshi Mukherjee said, “Every comrade who fights for the party is important, and Pratikur is one of them. The party leadership will speak about his resignation. The resignation of any comrade is a loss for us.”
“We will speak to him (Rahaman),” CPI(M) central committee member Samik Lahiri told PTI.
Disapproved Salim’s hobnobbing with Humayun Kabir
A former state president of the SFI, Rahman, had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Diamond Harbour against TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and lost. He had secured 86,953 votes, coming in a distant third.
Earlier in the 2021 Assembly polls, he had contested from Diamond Harbour, and came third after TMC and BJP.
A senior CPI(M) leader said that disagreements between Rahman and the party leadership started cropping up last year during the South 24 Parganas district conference.
“He had then resigned from the newly formed district committee with other party leaders. However, after the state committee’s intervention, Pratikur Rahman and others withdrew their resignation,” the senior leader said.
According to sources, Rahman, the party’s emerging minority face, was unhappy with CPI(M) state secretary Mohd Salim meeting suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir. “He had openly expressed his disapproval,” a party leader said.
Notably, it was Salim who accompanied Rahman, Srijan Bhattacharya and Dipsita Dhar during a roadshow in Kolkata during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Kabir, who formed Janata Unayan Party (JUP) following his suspension from the TMC, incidentally on Monday ruled out any tie-up with the Left Front and Naushad Siddiqui’s ISF. On the other hand, CPI(M) is most likely to formalise its alliance with the ISF.
His tense past with TMC
After moving to the parent party from Students’ Federation of India (SFI), where he was the national vice-president, Rahman was assigned to the “Khet Majur” (agricultural workers’) organisation of the CPI(M).
“He (Rahman) felt restricted in his work at the district level, which further deepened his dissatisfaction. We don’t know whether he will join the TMC, but his resignation is a massive loss for the party and sends a wrong message to the people just before the Assembly elections,” said an SFI leader.
Recalling an incident of 2010-11 in which Rahman was allegedly assaulted by TMC workers, the SFI leader said: “The TMC workers left him near a river, assuming he was dead. Local residents rescued him and admitted him to the hospital. It is difficult to believe he would now join the TMC. We are trying to resolve the differences.”
A native of Diamond Harbour, Rahman graduated with honours in Political Science from Diamond Harbour Fakir Chand College. He lives with his parents, two brothers, wife, and daughter.
Although his family runs a construction materials supply business, he chose not to join it and instead joined the SFI in college.
“I got associated with the SFI in 2011 following which I have been assaulted by TMC goons many times. They cannot stop me with violence. I will fight back hard,” Rahman had said while campaigning against Abhishek Banerjee in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
He had also called Abhishek’s “Diamond Harbour model” a bluff and had accused the TMC of being anti-farmer.