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In a searing attack on Congress, Trinamool mouthpiece calls it ‘incompetent’
An editorial in Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress mouthpiece, Jago Bangla, said the TMC will expand in other states as well
The Congress is “incompetent” and incapable of keeping its flock together, the Trinamool Congress mouthpiece Jago Bangla said in an editorial published on Thursday morning, hours after 12 of the 17 Congress legislators in the 60-member Meghalaya assembly exited the party and joined the TMC.
The mouthpiece, which earlier said Banerjee and not Sonia Gandhi is the face of the opposition in national politics, declared that the TMC will expand in other states as well.
The article claimed that during a meeting of opposition leaders convened by Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on August 20, Banerjee proposed the formation of a joint steering committee but the Congress did not act on it.
“The Congress has confined itself to air-conditioned rooms and social media. It is the TMC which is fighting on the streets, be it in Goa or Tripura,” said the article.
“Our party chief wants a national alliance against the BJP. We never said Congress will not be part of that alliance. But if the Congress fails to play its role, it cannot blame us for the incompetence,” it said.
The editorial focused its attack on Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who has repeatedly accused the TMC of engineering defections in his party to help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Hours before the defections in Meghalaya were announced, Chowdhury reacted to Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening and called the TMC president “an agent” of the Prime Minister.
“Before going to Delhi, she said she was going to oppose the extension of the BSF’s jurisdictional area in Bengal. After meeting Modi, she did not say what emerged from the talks on this issue. Instead, by inviting Modi to inaugurate the Bengal business summit, she proved that she is Modi’s agent. Her finance minister Amit Mitra all along held Modi responsible for the nation’s economic crisis. And now, Banerjee is saying that the Centre can help improve the state’s industry. She wants to keep Modi happy,” said Chowdhury.
Jago Bangla took the Congress and Chowdhury head-on.
“The Congress is plagued by internal crisis. Instead of countering this, it blames the TMC whenever its leaders join us. Chowdhury appears to be more concerned about this than the Congress national leadership,” said the editorial.
“Mamata Banerjee, on the other hand, has shown how to defeat Modi and Shah. This has prompted people in other states to invite the TMC to launch units. Leaders of many parties are joining us. TMC cannot be held responsible for the incompetence of the Congress,” the article said, referring to the victory of the TMC in the March-April Bengal assembly polls in which the BJP could win only 77 of Bengal’s 294 seats.
Reacting to the article, Chowdhury said, “Jago Bangla has increased the relevance of what I had been saying all along. Banerjee knows that weakening the Congress will help only the BJP. Those joining the TMC are not doing so for ideological reasons.”
