Team News Riveting
Kolkata, May 16
The West Bengal Pradesh Congress leadership had dismissed Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee’s proposal and termed it “ridiculous” and “outrageous”.
Banerjee had said on Monday that the Trinamool Congress was ready to extend support to the Congress in the 2024 general elections in regions where the Congress is strong. But she put a pointer and said the Congress, too, should reciprocate the political gesture by not fighting the Trinamool on a daily basis in states like Bengal.
The Telegraph Online reported that barely hours after Banerjee proposal, Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said: “We have repeatedly said before that we are not going to become bedfellows with thieves. If the Congress has to progress in this state, it must do so by defeating Mamata. There are no two ways about that.”
Calling the proposal “outrageous”, Chowdhury said: “What option did Didi have now but to say such things? Her national party status is gone and she is now reduced to a regional party. She tried to decimate Congress whenever she found an opportunity. She started that process from Goa. She tried that in Meghalaya and came to a halt in Tripura. In Bengal, she is fast losing popularity because of people’s disillusionment with her party. She is now facing an existential crisis. The entire state is talking against her. That’s why she remembers Congress now. Why didn’t she remember the Congress before the Karnataka elections? Why did she not ask people before to vote for the Congress?”
Chowdhury said even after winning elections, she never felt the need to work together with the Congress. Now, when there is a nation-wide positive response from people about the Congress, she feels the need to join the bandwagon and join hands with the Congress. “That’s why you see the relenting and reconciliatory attitude in her now. It’s her crisis, not the crisis of the Congress party,” he added.
