Congress state unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday ruled out the possibility of allowing the party’s fight against Mamata Banerjee to wane in the wake of the Opposition mega meet in Patna on Friday.
The Trinamul chief, the Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and its principal face Rahul Gandhi were among those who attended the meeting to rally forces against the BJP-led Narendra Modi government ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"Let me put this straight and hear me out clearly, in Bengal, we will fight against Mamata Banerjee and her fascist government, along with the Left parties. We have been fighting them and we will continue to fight them," Chowdhury told journalists at the Calcutta Press Club.
On insinuations by state BJP leaders that the Congress was acting as Trinamul's B-Team, Chowdhury said charges made by the BJP's "minor leaders" did not matter to the Congress.
Chowdhury, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee in the Lok Sabha and the leader of the largest party in Opposition in the Lower House of Parliament, suggested the Patna meeting did not imply his party now had a coalition with Trinamul. He said Mamata's party often ducked opportunities to stand with other Opposition parties.
“The Congress has always come forth with its own issues, irrespective of Trinamul saying a yes or a no to it. It is a convention in a parliamentary democracy that the leaders of the parties in opposition speak among themselves to discuss the common man’s issue before Parliament begins. They might agree or disagree, but the discussion doesn’t mean that the two parties are together,” Chowdhury added.
According to sources, the larger section of the Congress state unit is against the idea of joining hands with Trinamul. The message has been conveyed to the party’s high command as well. However, for the sake of displacing the BJP from power, a united fight is the need of the hour, the state unit has been told, sources added.
The Behrampore MP also came down heavily on state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha, calling him a “slave” and “bonded labourer” to Mamata. He claimed Sinha was being used as a “sacrificial lamb” by the state administration.
Taking a dig at the saffron camp, Chowdhury said the BJP, like Trinamul, would prefer it if rural polls were delayed.
He again iterated that every booth must be manned by the central forces during the panchayat polls, and if needed, the polls must be held in multiple phases for maximum security coverage. The rural polls are scheduled for a single phase on July 8.
Nawsad security
Bhangar’s ISF MLA was assigned security cover by the CISF on Sunday. Siddique appealed to a Calcutta High Court bench seeking security after his pleas to the state and central governments fell on deaf ears. On Sunday, Siddique said seven jawans of the CISF reached his home at Furfura Sharif in Hooghly, a day after Union home ministry officials came to meet him to fix security details.
