The TMC has heaped the blame for Mamata Banerjee’s severed ties with the Congress entirely on Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
A day after Mamata Banerjee severed ties with the Congress and declared that the Trinamool Congress will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls alone, the TMC has heaped the blame entirely on the Congress’s West Bengal president and Lok Sabha leader of the party, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
“Three reasons for the alliance not working in Bengal — Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,” TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said at a press interaction in Delhi on Thursday.
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With the Congress still holding out a candle for the TMC, banking on a possible middle path, Mr. O’Brien asserted, “We have turned the page.”
Congress’s stand
The Congress continues to court Ms. Banerjee. Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh, speaking at Bagdogra, Siliguri on the first day of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in West Bengal, credited her for the liberal land acquisition law brought by the UPA, which, he said, would not have passed without the TMC’s support.
“I would like to state, with a lot of humility, that we will find a middle path. We are aware that the TMC stands at the very apex of West Bengal’s politics and if we have to defeat the BJP, then the TMC’s presence is essential,” Mr. Ramesh said.
He insisted that the invite had been sent to her. “Our leaders, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi — all of them want her to come. We want Chief Minister Ms. Banerjee especially to come, even if it is for just 15-20 minutes,” he added.
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It is too late for any damage control, the TMC leaders said. Though Mr. O’Brien did not name the Congress at any point, keeping his tirade centred on Mr. Chowdhury, he said the INDIA bloc had many detractors but only two had spoken against it repeatedly — the BJP and Mr. Chowdhury. “The voice is his but the words are of BJP duo,” Mr. O’Brien added.
In the past two years, he accused Mr. Chowdhury of speaking the language of the BJP. “Not once did he raise the question of West Bengal being denied Central funds. He endorsed the Enforcement Directorate’s action in Bengal against our leaders. There is barely any squeak from him against any BJP leader. While Ms. Banerjee has been the primary target of all his speeches,” Mr. O’Brien maintained.
Mr. O’Brien underlined that the TMC has for the last 180 days since June 23 when the bloc was first formed followed the grammar of coalition politics. “It was decided in all our meetings that whichever is the strongest party in the State will lead the talks. We waited and waited for the Congress, but we had to take a call,” he said.
There are indications that the divorce between the two is not final. “If the Congress does its job on the 300 seats it is fighting and defeats the BJP, then we will be standing by the front that believes in pluralism of India,” he added.