West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday mocked TMC’s assertion of leading the opposition front for 2024 Lok Sabha polls as “laughable”, further stating that the contention has “no relation with the ground realities of Indian politics”.
His comments drew sharp reactions from the TMC, which accused the grand old party of failing to put up a formidable fight against the BJP so far.
“The assertions that the TMC would lead the opposition front for 2024 polls and defeat the BJP on its own is laughable and has no relation with the ground realities of Indian politics,” Chowdhury said while addressing a press conference here.
In response, TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said Chowdhury’s remark makes little difference.
“No one takes Adhir Chowdhury seriously. Under his leadership, Congress has drawn a blank in the assembly polls. The truth is that Mamata Banerjee is the strongest opposition face,” he stated.
The TMC, which is trying to make inroads in other states, has been up in arms against the Congress over its alleged failure to counter the BJP. Banerjee’s party had last week claimed that it is now the “real Congress”, given the fact that the “war-weary” grand old party has failed to perform its role as the main opposition to the BJP.
Ties between the Congress and the TMC got strained after the ruling party in West Bengal, in an article in its mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’, asserted that Banerjee, and not Rahul Gandhi, has emerged as the face of the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Talking about the upcoming Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, Chowdhury said that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s claim of setting up a “corruption-free” civic body is just another attempt to fool the masses, ahead of the December 19 elections.
“After 11 years of enjoying power in the KMC, all of a sudden, she (Mamata Banerjee) remembers that she needs to make a corruption-free civic body. This is an attempt to fool the masses. The party itself has nominated several leaders who are accused of corruption,” he maintained.
Chowdhury, a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), said he is hopeful that his party would be performing well in the civic polls, provided elections are held in a fair manner.
“We have seen how panchayat polls were conducted in 2018. We doubt elections would be held in a free and fair manner under the state police. Although the TMC is saying it won’t allow any violence in the polls, there are instances where candidates of opposition parties have not been allowed to campaign properly,” he alleged.
Taking a dig at TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who has warned his party workers of ‘dadagiri’ (high-handedness), Chowdhury said that his statement only goes on to prove that his party “looted votes, terrorised opposition agents and voters” during the local body elections in the past.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said at a meeting in Purba Medinipur that the BJP will “block roads in the city and the rest of Bengal” if there was any attack on party members and candidates during the voting process on December 19.
“There will be road blocks everywhere if the situation warrants so,” he added.
