Pratik Ur Rahaman hails Mamata’s SIR battle after CPI-M exit, fuels TMC speculation

In an interview with Bengali news channel Zee 24 Ghanta, Rahaman said while Mamata Banerjee escalated the matter to the highest judicial level, the Communists remained confined to ground-level work and internal analysis.

“Mamata Banerjee fought for people on SIR. CPI-M were supposed to fight this battle but instead labelled the CM’s fight as a stunt. Pinarayi Vijayan or MA Baby should have advocated in the Supreme Court but they didn’t. TMC is far ahead of CPI-M when it comes to fighting against SIR,” he said.

“CPI-M rather discussed what will be the impact of SIR on the voter list. They were busy analysing the numbers of voters individual parties would lose due to the drive,” he added.

Rahaman, once considered a prominent young minority face of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal, resigned from the party’s state committee, district committee and primary membership on February 16, 2026, citing ideological differences and dissatisfaction with the leadership’s functioning.

In his resignation letter, he said he was “unable to align” with the views and strategies of the district and state leadership. He later claimed he felt “cornered” within the party for raising questions related to ideology and principles.

His exit is seen as a setback for CPI-M ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections, as he was regarded as one of the party’s emerging youth leaders.

Rahaman had contested the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election from Diamond Harbour but lost. He again contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from the same constituency against TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, but was defeated.