E-Paper
Mamata Banerjee floats 2024 plan for Oppn unity, Bengal Cong leader runs it down
Mamata Banerjee said the Congress was fighting her every day in Bengal. “If you want to achieve some good things, you have to sacrifice in your area,” the TMC chief said to the Congress
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday renewed her call for a “one on one” fight by regional satraps to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and said the Congress must support other political parties in states where the regional parties are strong.
“In a state where there is a strong regional party, BJP won’t be able to put up a fight. The strongest regional party must be given priority in each state. We will give support to the Congress in states where they are strong. There is no problem with this. But they (Congress) have to support other political parties too,” Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat on Monday.
Ahead of the Karnataka assembly election, Banerjee had appealed to the people not to vote for the BJP in the southern state. “I am giving you (Congress) the support in Karnataka, but you are fighting against me every day (in West Bengal). This shouldn’t be the policy. This goes for everybody. If you want to achieve some good things, you have to sacrifice in your area,” she said.
A meeting of non-BJP parties is likely to be held in Patna soon to give shape to a larger opposition front to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls. At least 12 political parties are likely to attend the proposed meeting.
“For example, I think we should fight against the BJP in West Bengal. In Delhi, it would be AAP. In Bihar, there is Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav and Congress. They need to decide on a formula. In Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav’s party should get the priority. I am not saying Congress shouldn’t fight there. Let us decide. It (discussions) is not in the final stage. Now everybody is thinking something,” she added.
In West Bengal, Banerjee has been attacking the BJP, the Congress and the CPI(M) in what she insists was a tacit understanding between the three parties to forge a ‘Ram-Baam-Shyam’ (BJP-Left-Congress) alliance.
The accusation that the three parties have an understanding became louder after the TMC lost the Sagardighi assembly seat for the first time in 13 years to the Congress-Left alliance in the February 27 by-election. Banerjee had then called the alliance immoral and pledged to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on its own.
To be sure, the presence of Congress leader Kaustav Bagchi on the stage with BJP legislator Suvendu Adhikari during a protest rally earlier this month did trigger a political row in Kolkata.
“It is not just in West Bengal but across India, Congress is the main anti-BJP force. Even the Prime Minister has acknowledged this when he speaks of ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’. It is the TMC which has a secret pact with the BJP and this has come out in the open now,” said Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
Senior Bengal BJP leader Rahul Sinha said: “The TMC has lost its status of a national party and hence Mamata Banerjee has lost her relevance on the national front. Before every election, she speaks of a united opposition, which fades after the election when Narendra Modi comes back with more power,” said.
Banerjee who had long been advocating for a united front recently met Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav at the state secretariat in Kolkata. In March she met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and former Karnataka chief minister and Janata Dal (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy.
