Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said on Friday that Trinamul Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay’s statement that the Congress shouldn’t consider itself as the boss of non-BJP parties showed that there was a tacit understanding between Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee.
Responding to Bandyopadhyay’s remark, Chowdhury said the statement gave out the secret understanding between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The BJP is not bothered about Mamata because it doesn’t consider her as its rival. They (BJP) know that there is a tacit understanding between her and the Prime Minister,” Chowdhury said.
He further said: “Mamata’s real face is coming out and her veil of anti-BJP politics is falling apart.”
Bandyopadhyay’s allegation that the BJP wanted to project Congress MP Rahul Gandhi as the face of the Opposition to benefit from it in the 2024 polls drew sharp criticism from Chowdhury.
Laughing off Bandyopadhyay’s statement, Chowdhury claimed that Gandhi was the “uncompromising” national leader who held his ground against the BJP’s repeated insults and attacks.
“Such allegations only make Prime Minister Modi happy,” he said to hint at Trinamul’s allegiance to the BJP.
Bandyopadhyay’s statement comes in the backdrop of recent attacks launched against Rahul by BJP leaders and ministers inside and outside Parliament. The BJP has accused Rahul of insulting the House and the country on foreign soil.
During a recent speech at Cambridge University on the “threat to democracy” in India, Rahul alleged that several Opposition politicians, including him, were under surveillance. The speech angered the BJP, which has since made Rahul the target of its attack.
The BJP has responded to Trinamul’s allegation that making Rahul the face of the Opposition was a gameplan of the saffron camp. BJP national vice-president and Midnapore MP Dilip Ghosh said Trinamul’s allegations showed that the Opposition parties were aware that defeating Modi would be impossible.
Speaking about the Congress’ allegation that Trinamul was in a secret understanding with the BJP, Ghosh said: “We don’t need a B-team.”
