Team News Riveting
Kolkata, September 6
Congress is in a fix to field a candidate against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who will be seeking people’s mandate in the ensuing by-election.
Mamata Banerjee would be contesting the by-election from Bhabanipur that will go to the polls on September 30. She has to become a member of legislative house before November 5 as she lost from Nandigram in May state polls. Bhabanipur is the constituency that she has represented twice.
Though there is no political challenge for the Chief Minister, Congress is in a dilemma. Given the improving relations between Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee, Congress is confused about whether to put a candidate in Bhabanipur.
A section in the Congress party leaders in New Delhi is against contesting the election. They cited that Mamata had asked her party leaders not to target Sonia Gandhi when Sushmita Deb quit the Grand Old Party to join the TMC. The message from Mamata was followed by Sushmita in all her interviews and press conferences.
But a group of leaders in West Bengal is against any such move. They said if the TMC had been so sincere, it would not have entertained Abhijit Mukherjee and Sushmita to quit Congress and join TMC. The state leaders are of the view that the party should at least field a candidate as a token against the Chief Minister given Congress’ depleting base in West Bengal.
At the initiative of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Bengal Congress Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, the party reached an unholy alliance with the Left and failed to even get a seat. This was the first ever performance of Congress in the state.
The West Bengal leaders felt that any move to support Mamata Banerjee would further demoralise the party cadre and would be another political miscalculation. Just to fulfil the agenda of TMC to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress should think twice before putting its political fate at stake by joining hands with TMC, the leaders added.
