In presumably tactical move the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday trained its guns both at the BJP and the Congress with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attacking the Centre for stoking an oppressive price regime and her nephew and TMC general secretary targeting the Congress for failing to make a viable opposition against a “saffron tyranny.”
While Banerjee attacked the Centre for tormenting the people of the country by “extorting the people through tel (fuel) and toll” her nephew picked on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for resorting to Twitter war instead of fighting the battle against the BJP on the streets.
“They (BJP Government) has increased the price of 800 medicines,” Banerjee said adding, “the price of tel and toll (toll tax) is going up by the day whereas the (political) courtesy is getting devalued.” The TMC earlier said that in a country where the essential items were getting dearer by the day the government was raising prices of medicine and giving tax cut to movies. The Chief Minister said that the Centre had no sympathy for the common people who are suffering greatly due to the rising prices.
“At a time the country is suffering from unprecedented inflation this Government is minting money at the cost of the common people by hiking the price of tel (fuel) and toll (increasing toll taxes),” she said adding no humane government would have increased the price of essential medicines the way the BJP Government did. The Chief Minister had earlier urged the Centre to suspend the toll tax for a while and put a cap on the rising fuel prices. While the Chief Minister attacked the Centre her nephew and Diamond Harbour MP concentrated on the Congress even as he went to Guwahati to inaugurate the TMC’s State party office.
Saying that the Congress party had failed to live up to the expectations of the people junior Banerjee whose outfit has an eye on the massive Bengali vote bank in Assam said without naming the Congress leader, “though we have come out of the Congress like many other party have but the big difference between the Congress and the TMC is that we have not confined ourselves to the twitter war only … if we have to raise our voices against fuel price hike we descending on the street because Twitter does not win you battles.”
For winning battles “you have to take it to the streets, get beaten up by the powers that be … you cannot win wars without taking part in it,” he added saying the difference between his party and the Congress was that “in the past 8 years we have always defeated BJP whereas the BJP has always defeated the Congress … this raises our credibility level … we are not afraid of anything … that is what Mamata Banerjee has taught us.”
Saying that his party would establish itself in at least 10 States of the country the Diamond Harbour MP said that his party would contest polls and win in Meghalaya and Tripura. “We will go all out in Assam and if we can win even 10 seats here then we will make the BJP’s seat of power in the Centre tremble.”
Reacting to his statements Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Chowdhury said that the TMC was in fact acting like the BJP’s B team by helping it in States where the Congress was stronger — by cutting its votes.
“Remember what the TMC did in Goa … it is trying to do the same in Assam as the agent of the BJP,” he said.