Landlord asks Trinamool to vacate East Kolkata building housing party HQ
Trinamool Congress received notice to vacate its temporary headquarters in Kolkata’s Topsia area after the building owner cited security concerns following post-election vandalism. The rented EM Bypass office had served as the party’s operational hub for four years during renovation of its main headquarters.
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress leadership has received a notice to vacate the party’s temporary headquarters or ‘Trinamool Bhaban’, located in East Kolkata. The owner of the rented multi-storey building in the Topsia area along the EM Bypass, which was the Trinamool headquarters for the past few years, has asked the party to vacate.
It is reported that this decision was made due to security concerns following the vandalism outside the building after the Assembly election results were announced. The owner of this luxurious multi-storey building is Montu Saha, the head of one of the state’s renowned companies, ‘Modern Decorators’.
He himself is said to have verbally informed the Trinamool leadership about vacating the house. Saha has also specified that the deadline to vacate the multi-storey building has been given.
He said that he had spoken to the Trinamool leadership and the party has clearly assured him that the multi-storey building will be completely vacated within the next two months. There has been a recent political upheaval in the state after the change of government.
However, Montu Saha said that there was no political motive, pressure or any other reason behind it.
He said, “Immediately after the results of the Assembly elections were announced on May 4, there was widespread vandalism outside that house. If there is any damage to the house, the loss will be mine. There is nothing else in this.” Saha said he asked Trinamool to vacate the house mainly due to security reasons and has no personal grudge against the party.
He also confirmed that the Trinamool leadership has always paid the house rent as per the agreement. There has been no response from Trinamool Congress on the issue. It is worth noting that after retaining power in the 2021 Assembly elections, the Trinamool top leadership decided to renovate the party’s main office located in the Topsia area.
The old building was demolished, and a modern multi-storey building was built. For this reason, the building in the metropolitan area of EM Bypass was rented in 2022 as an alternative office.
Although the building was initially rented for only two years, the contract was extended by another two years since work on the main building in Topsia was not completed.
As a result, for the last four years, this metropolitan building was the main hub of all the political and organisational activities of the Trinamool. In this temporary Trinamool building, separate well-furnished rooms were arranged for party supremo Mamata Banerjee and General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Almost every important organisational meeting of the party, election strategy formulation and press conference were held in this house.
The top leaders of the party, MLAs and ministers used to come here every day. This office was mainly managed and looked after by the party’s state president, Subrata Bakshi and vice-president Jay Prakash Majumdar.
