Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in Goa on Saturday accused the Congress of suffering from indecision and thereby strengthening the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Her statements came on a day when Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was also in Goa.
“Modiji is going to be more powerful because of the Congress... Congress is the BJP's TRP,” Mamata told journalists at Panaji on the last day of her maiden trip to Goa.
“If they (Congress) can’t take a decision the country will suffer. Why should the country suffer...(Congress) have had enough opportunity,” Mamata added but did not specify the Congress’s indecision.
Making a reference to the Left-Congress pact in the summer polls in Bengal, she reminded journalists about Rahul’s party taking on the Trinamul instead of the BJP.
“Instead of contesting against the BJP, they (Congress) contested against me in my state... They expect we would give flowers to them?” she said.
Mamata’s comments came days after her poll strategist Prashant Kishor said for the next few decades the BJP would remain at the centre of Indian politics, even if it wasn’t in power. He had also said Rahul Gandhi was under the misconception that people would be angry enough to overthrow the Modi government.
“What I think he (Kishor) meant was that the BJP cannot be defeated the way Congress is functioning...There should be strong decisions. This is what he meant,” Mamata said.
However, she refused to speak on what the Congress should do to combat the BJP, saying it wasn’t her party.
Mamata also used the last day of her Goa trip to sound out probable alliance partners for the February 2022 Assembly polls there. Trinamul has already said it will contest in all 40 seats in Goa.
Mamata met chief of Goa Forward Party Vijay Sardesai and discussed a possible alliance. Sardesai, a BJP ally till April this year, met Mamata in the backdrop of his overtures to the Congress for a possible poll pact being rebuffed.
Referring to Mamata as a “symbol of regional pride”, Sardesai welcomed her statement on the need for all regional parties to come together. He said his party had also been speaking in favour of a regional alliance for two years and nobody had paid heed.
“We are also a regional party. We welcome her statement...We've been saying the same thing for two years and nobody listened... Trinamul was not there then... I met her today (Saturday) and now we will discuss it (a potential alliance)in our party,” Sardesai told journalists later.
Mamata also stressed on the necessity to avoid the division of votes. About her meeting Sardesai, she said the two parties discussed how the BJP could be defeated through a combined effort.
"We discussed the matter... let's work together to fight against the BJP. (Now) it is their decision...We want to avoid division of votes,” she said. She also said her party believed in distributing seats to regional parties.
“I want regional parties to be strong. We want the federal structure to be strong. We should make states strong, if states are strong, then the Centre will be strong. Delhi ka dadagiri amka naka (We don’t want Delhi’s bullying), enough is enough,” she said.
Reacting to Mamata’s attack, Bengal Congress chief and MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury hit out at the Trinamul supremo and termed her as the BJP’s “Trojan horse”.
The Congress leader alleged that Mamata was in touch with BJP leaders, including Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, as well as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
