With the Congress airing — a day ahead of the Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s strategic visit to Delhi— an open condemnation of the Narendra Modi Government for hacking senior Trinamool Congress’ MP and Chief Minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee’s telephone the State ruling out fit on Sunday showered praises on the Akbar Road saying it was a “positive sign towards a broad based unity against an autocratic rule.”
Even as the pro-Trinamool critics in the State promptly saw in the Congress’ “gesture” early signs of “national unity against Pegasus and all” senior TMC MP Saugato Roy said “we thank the Congress for showing the gesture” at a time when Mamata Banerjee had taken up the cause of uniting all the opposition line under one umbrella.
Another senior Trinamool Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’ Brien re-tweeted a loaded one-liner “Khela Hobey” a slogan that the Trinamool Congress successfully used in the Bengal Assembly elections under Banerjee and the Chief Minister on her July 21 public rally re-invoked at the national level in her bid to “work in advance and work fast” to unite anti-saffron forces in the country.
Earlier the Congress presented a life-size photograph of junior Banerjee— who is the official number two in the Trinamool line-up —on its social media handle writing “PM Modi took the adage, ‘keep your enemies closer’ a little too far.”
The Congress also wrote that Banerjee was targeted ahead of Bengal Assembly elections “because Government insecurities are endless.” The TMC insiders promptly interpreted the remarks “as dropping sufficient hints of a rapprochement” between the two tri-colour outfits.
On whether the Congress social media “soft corner” for junior Banerjee carried a positive sign for the Trinamool Congress chief who had taken the lead in uniting rest of India against BJP apparently under her leadership, a senior Minister in the State Cabinet said “Mamata Banerjee has proved her mettle as a national leader and should be allowed to lead the country against the communal forces … hope all the opposition parties including the Congress and the Left will understand that.”
Congress MP from Bengal Pradip Bhattacharya however refused to see much into the Congress social media “gesture” saying “this are times when the entire country has united against the BJP’s Pegasus conspiracy and Mamata Banerjee is one of them … so the Congress has shown its support for the cause she like many others have taken up.”
Earlier referring to the Chief Minister’s announcement that she would call an all-India rally of opposition parties at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata Bhattacharya said “She had earlier too called a meeting at Brigade Parade ground and Mallikarjun Kharge had attended that meeting. She is doing that again… However … all opposition parties under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi should come together to fight against the BJP.”