‘Mamata an opportunist’: Adhir Ranjan's jibe after Rahul Gandhi says seat talks underway

Rahul Gandhi, who is currently in Assam as part of his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, asserted that Mamata Banerjee is "very close" to him.

Updated on: Jan 23, 2024, 22:06:30 IST

By HT News Desk

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Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday lashed out at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, calling her an ‘opportunist’, just hours after Rahul Gandhi said that the Trinamool Congress chief was ‘close to him and his party’.

Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Mamata Banerjee.

“We will not contest the elections at the mercy of Mamata Banerjee. Congress knows how to contest elections on its own, and the two seats we have won (in 2019 Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal) were by defeating Mamata and BJP. Mamta is an opportunist; she herself came to power in 2011, with the mercy of Congress,” Chowdhury was quoted by PTI as saying.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi, who is currently in Assam as part of his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, asserted that Mamata Banerjee is "very close" to him. “The negotiations on seat-sharing is underway, I don't want to comment here. But Mamata Banerjee is very close to me and our party. Sometimes our leaders say something, their leaders say something, and it goes on. It's a natural thing. Such comments won't matter and these are not things that are going to disrupt things,” ANI quoted Gandhi as saying.

In a latest development, the TMC chief in a closed-door party meeting, slammed the Congress and accused it of delay in discussions for seat-sharing for the INDIA alliance in West Bengal, citing "unjustified" demand for 10-12 Lok Sabha constituencies when her party was willing to share only two.

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During the internal meeting in Birbhum, Banerjee urged party leaders to gear up for the electoral battle, emphasising the need for the TMC's triumph in both the Lok Sabha seats from the district, PTI reported.

Besides the Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is also a member of the INDIA alliance. Mamata Banerjee had stormed to power in Bengal in 2011 by defeating the CPM-led Left Front that had ruled the state for 34 years.

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