File Picture
Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien held West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury responsible for an alliance not working out between the two parties in West Bengal.
The remark came a day after West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee announced that her party will fight the Lok Sabha polls ‘alone’ in the state.
“Three reasons for the alliance not working in Bengal — Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,” O’Brien told reporters in New Delhi.
He also claimed that the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) had many detractors but only two — the BJP and Chowdhury — have repeatedly spoken out against the bloc.
The TMC leader further alleged that Chowdhury was working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“The voice is his, but the words are being dictated to him by the duo in Delhi. In the past two years, Adhir Chowdhury has spoken the language of the BJP. Not once has he raised the issue of Bengal being deprived of central funds,” O’Brien said.
“He even endorses ED actions in Bengal when they are against Trinamool. He holds special press conferences to belittle Mamata Banerjee and barely speaks against BJP leaders,” he added.
Asked whether the TMC remains part of the INDIA grouping, O’Brien said, “After the general elections, if the Congress does its job and defeats the BJP on a substantial number of seats, the Trinamool Congress will very much be a part of the front that believes and fights for the Constitution and plurality.”
Meanwhile , Congress leader Jairam Ramesh Thursday said the party is hopeful of finding a solution to the seat-sharing impasse with the Trinamool Congress, a day after its supremo Mamata Banerjee made a surprise announcement of going solo in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
Ramesh, while speaking to reporters at the Bagdogra airport in Siliguri, maintained that the Congress cannot think of an Indian National Developmental Iinlusive Alliance (INDIA) without Banerjee, as she is indispensable in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the country.
“If we want to defeat the BJP in Bengal and India, Mamata Banerjee is very much needed. Our leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have immense respect for Mamata ji,” he said.
Highlighting the chief minister’s significance as one of the ‘important pillars of the INDIA alliance’, the Congress general secretary said ‘no one can imagine the grouping without Mamata Banerjee and the TMC’.
