The Bengal Pradesh Congress is not in a mood to compromise the State in lieu of friendship with Mamata Banerjee. Two days after the Bengal Chief Minister said that she was ready to accept congress friendship wherever it is in a strong position provided it too obliged her in a similar fashion the PCC leadership said that if Banerjee through her statement was asking for Bengal then there was no question of favouring her.
“After tormenting the Congress workers for the past one decade … after framing then in false cases and forcing them to join the TMC at the point of gun the Chief Minister is now trying to show us lollipops … because she knows that the ground beneath her feet is slipping away … but this time the Congress is not going to get entrapped,” PCC leader Ashutosh said. PCC president and Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Chowdhury too had spoken in similar language earlier saying “Congress will definitely fight elections in Bengal,” adding “today Mamata Banerjee is offering us a hand of friendship because after the Karnataka elections the message has gone to her loud and clear that no anti-BJP front can sustain without the Congress Party.” His strong statement came a day after the Chief Minister said that her party was ready to back the Congress wherever it was strong provided the Congress too returned the favour. “Where was she all these days when the Congress was fighting in Karnataka … did she give any message to the voters to support the Congress … even after the election results she extended her congratulatory message for the people of that State and even the JD(S) but she had no word of congratulations for the Congress … and now suddenly realizing her mistake she is offering her support to us,” Chowdhury said reminding how Banerjee had upset the Congress apple cart in Goa, Meghalaya and Tripura.
“She went to Goa, Meghalaya and Tripura to eat into our vote base and now she is asking for concessions in Bengal … there is no question of doing so … the Congress is free to take its own decisions … the party will come up in a great way in Bengal as a large number of people are joining us now,” the senior Congress leader said. Curiously the BJP too interpreted Banerjee’s statement in a similar light saying that the Bengal Chief Minister by offering the Congress support in states where it was stronger was in fact drawing a “no-gozone” for the grand old party.
Analysing Banerjee’s statement BJP spokesperson Sajjad Poonawala said that TMC leader did not want Congress to play it big in stateswhere it was weaker — like in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Bengal etc. “It is not Mamata Banerjee’s statement of support (for the Congress) but its statement of no-confidence,” he said, expecting Banerjee would definitely try to put a brake on Congress pan-Indian designs.