KOLKATA: As Trinamool Congress prepares for its final 'Martyrs' Day' event on Friday, July 21, before the decisive battle for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, all eyes are on the message West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee might convey to the Congress.

The lingering question is whether she will unequivocally rule out any negotiations with the country's oldest national party for the Lok Sabha polls, as she has been doing in recent months, or extend an olive branch, or perhaps choose to remain entirely silent and refrain from mentioning Congress in her speech.

Political observers with vast experience believe that all three possibilities hold significance, given the chief minister's ability to gauge when and where to speak and when silence is more powerful. "Her statement or silence on Friday will undoubtedly indicate the direction of Congress-Trinamool equations in West Bengal in the days to come," commented a seasoned political observer based in the city.

The 'Martyrs' Day' rally is taking place at a critical juncture when discontent has been brewing among the state leadership of Congress, following the presence of their national leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge on the same stage as Mamata Banerjee during the recent meeting of the grand opposition alliance in Bengaluru.

State leaders of the oldest national party have raised questions about the appropriateness of their national leaders sharing the stage with Mamata Banerjee, especially in light of the attacks their party workers faced from the ruling Trinamool Congress activists during the recently concluded panchayat elections.

Amid this discontent, there is also curiosity about whether the Trinamool Congress supremo's message, if delivered from the dais, will be directed solely at the national leadership of Congress or also address the state leadership.

To recall, on July 21, 1993, thirteen people lost their lives in police firing during a rally led by West Bengal Youth Congress, headed by Mamata Banerjee, who was then the party's youth wing president in the state. The rally was organized to demand that the voters' identity card be the sole required document for voting. Since then, the Martyrs' Day program has been held every year on July 21 in memory of the thirteen people who lost their lives.

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