Trinamool Congress (TMC) General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday hit out at West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and called him a "Trojan horse" within the grand old party. TMC and Congress are part of the INDIA alliance, but they have differed over Lok Sabha seat-sharing in West Bengal.
Fed up with failed talks and constant attacks from Adhir Ranjan, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee recently announced that her party would contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal. Later, TMC MP Derek O'Brien blamed Adhir Ranjan for the break-up in alliance at the state level. He said the Congress state chief, who is a vocal critic of Mamata Banerjee, was speaking BJP's language.
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Even after Mamata announced that her party would contest on all seats, Adhir Ranjan said he wouldn't "beg" for seats from the TMC but the central leaders reached out to the chief minister saying she was important for the INDIA bloc. In the last general elections, the Congress had won 2 seats.
Today, Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the nephew of Mamata Banerjee, said the issue of seat allocation has been a lingering concern since the first INDIA bloc meeting in Patna. He claimed that from the outset, the TMC has been open to dialogue, urging Congress leaders to decide on the distribution of constituencies for the upcoming elections.
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Abhishek Banerjee, who is considered the second most powerful person in the party after Mamata, expressed his dismay over the demand for President's Rule in West Bengal made by Adhir Ranjan. "How can Congress demand President's Rule in Bengal? Congress leadership in the state kept saying that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is doing good work in Bengal but not in Delhi," he said.
The TMC General Secretary said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was demanding President's Rule in Bengal. "He is Congress state president and being an INDIA bloc member, how can he challenge Mamata Banerjee? We did not attack. I never said anything, but he is a Trojan horse within the Congress ranks," he added.
Abhishek Banerjee said Adhir Ranjan was challenging Mamata Banerjee, whom Congress was claiming as the most important ally of the INDIA bloc. "Ultimately, whom are you helping? Are you strengthening Congress or the BJP?" he asked. The TMC leader also criticised the delay in deciding seat-sharing and said his party had been repeatedly asking Congress to decide on seat-sharing. "In the last meeting, we said to decide by January 31, but it’s delayed. It’s unfortunate."
(With inputs from Anupam Mishra)