Kolkata, Sep 30 (PTI) Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday took a sharp dig at Mamata Banerjee over her participation in an INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi, questioning whether her renewed engagement with the grand old party also meant she was now willing to accept Rahul Gandhi’s leadership of the opposition ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
Chowdhury, a former West Bengal Congress president and a vocal critic of the ex-CM, said opposition parties should recognise the Lok Sabha LoP as the face of their political fight, while questioning Banerjee’s earlier reservations about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership.
“Didi had to go to Delhi, you all know the reason… It’s because she has lost in West Bengal,” Chowdhury said at a press conference.
“Many so-called leaders had earlier opposed Rahul Gandhi’s leadership of the opposition bloc. But the reality is that only Rahul Gandhi can lead the alliance and he should be at the forefront,” he said.
Had Banerjee supported Gandhi’s leadership when the INDIA bloc held its initial meetings, “the situation in the country today might have been different”, Chowdhury said.
“As Mamata Banerjee has lost elections in West Bengal and her party has split, she wants an alliance with the Congress, after trying to wipe out our party in the last 15 years. All these years, TMC did everything to undermine the INDIA bloc and the Congress,” he added.
His remarks came after Banerjee attended a three-and-a-half-hour meeting with INDIA bloc leaders in New Delhi on Wednesday to chalk out a joint strategy on the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and opposition concerns over the functioning of the Election Commission.
The meeting was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Banerjee, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule, among others.
The opposition bloc finalised a joint action plan over the SIR issue, including ‘Save Democracy’ marches from October 2 to 8, demonstrations before district magistrates and a march by opposition MPs to the Election Commission’s office on October 6. A larger rally is also planned in Delhi on November 1.
Kharge said the opposition parties had agreed to demand a return to ballot-paper voting instead of EVMs.
Banerjee later said the INDIA bloc was “very much united” and demanded the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging irregularities and manipulation of the electoral process.
She also attacked the poll panel over the SIR exercise and referred to the CEC as “Vanishing Kumar”, while alleging that genuine voters had been removed from the electoral rolls.
Banerjee’s participation in the meeting marks another notable shift in her engagement with the Congress-led opposition bloc, days after she backed the party candidate in the Nandigram assembly bypoll and described the grand old party as a “sister party” and “natural ally”.
The developments assume significance in the backdrop of years of political rivalry between the TMC and Congress in West Bengal. During much of the TMC’s 15-year rule in the state, Banerjee and her party had maintained that the organisation was capable of taking on the BJP on its own and had resisted Congress’s efforts for a broader electoral understanding in West Bengal.
Banerjee and other TMC leaders had on several occasions also questioned the Congress leadership and Rahul Gandhi’s ability to lead the opposition bloc.
The latest outreach, however, has brought the two parties closer on several issues at the national level, even as their political relationship in West Bengal remains marked by competition and competing organisational interests. PTI PNT ACD
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