A day after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her huff at “not getting enough preference” in the Indian National Developmental Alliance (INDIA) meetings and days after Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury cocked a snook at the Trinamool Congress saying
he did not care for TMC’s support, Rahul Gandhi got down to assuage the ruffled feelingsreminding how dearly Banerjee was rated by the Janpath, iterating in addition that talks on a possible alliance with the Bengal ruling outfit were still on. “Mamata Banerjee is very close to me. Sometimes leaders at local levels say something here and there which should be ignored … such comments should not matter,” Gandhi a former Congress acting president said reminding that he had in fact invited both Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar to join his Naya Yatra when it would pass through Bengal and Bihar.
Chowdhury had strongly reacted last week to a purported direction by Banerjee to the TMCworkers to start preparing to contest all the 42 seats including the two seats of Behrampore and Malda South presently held by the Adhir Chowdhury and AH Khan Chowdhury in that order.
Reacting to Banerjee’s direction to her party men in an organizational meeting to “prepare for defeating Adhir Chowdhury … don’t be afraid … because if we work united then everyone … and even Adhir Chowdhury can be defeated,” Chowdhury had said that he was least bothered about what others said. “I don’t care who says what … I have been winning the seat for the past more than 20 years and will win it even now … if anyone wants to contest against me … one is welcome.”
While Chowdhury’s remarks had reportedly angered Banerjee what tended to irk her more was the preference the CPI(M) got at the INDIA meetings. “I feel very sad that despite the name
INDIA was conceptualized by me I am neglected there … the CPI(M) gets more preference than me and the meeting is run according to their agenda … I am sorry I cannot take this because we have fought that party for 34 years and got rid of them from Bengal … there can be no alliance with the CPI(M) here,” she said. Incidentally the Left has already ruled out any alliance with the TMC keeping its doors open for the Congress. A majority of the Congress want an alliance with the Left and not the TMC against which they claim to be fighting for the past more than a decade.
“The TMC has oppressed, tortured and devastated our workers in the villages … they have broken the party … they have perpetrated so much hardship on us in a matter of few years that the CPI(M) would not do … there were occasional turf wars with the Left but they never engineered defection in our party … Mamata Banerjee has literally demolished us in Bengal … so if we ally with her party it will be difficult to take along with us the grassroots and in that case the Congress will lose its votes either to the CPI(M) or the BJP,” a senior PCC leader and a former MLA said. The alliance talks between the TMC and Congress is stuck on the number of seats. While the Congress wants 6-8 seats --- namely Darjeeling, Raiganj, Malda North and Malda South, Murshidabad, Jangipur, Behrapmore, Purulia --- the TMC is not willing to leave the present twoseats of Behrampore and Malda South presently held by the tri-colour outfit.