The Trinamool Congress has distanced itself from the statements made by party MP and superstar Shatrughna Sinha praising Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.
“If he has praised Rahul Gandhi that is his own view … they are mutually well acquainted for many years … so he may have praised him … But the Trinamool Congress does not hold the same opinion,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Dr Shantanu Sen on Monday said.
On Sunday Sinha had praised Gandhi for his Bharat Jodo (Unite India) initiative saying the Bharat Jodo Yatra was the need of the hour.
He said “Rahul Gandhi has emerged as a youth icon and a serious leader” destroying the image that his Opposition tried to project about him. “I do not remember such a yatra — drawing people from women to children to youth in such great numbers — taking place for many years … I think a nearest parallel may be drawn with the Yatra led by my friend, philosopher and guide LK Advani ji or for that matter the one organized by (former Prime Minister) Chandrashekhar ji,” Sinha a TMC MP from Asansol who had earlier left the Congress to join Mamata Banerjee’s party said.
When asked to comment on Sinha’s statement about Gandhi — a leader in whom the TMC sees a challenger for Mamata Banerjee’s prime ministerial ambitions — Dr Sen said that Sinha’s statement was made on personal capacity and that the TMC had nothing to do with that.
“It will not be right for me to speak about the political programmes of other parties … Whatever Mr Sinha said is his personal opinion and not the stand of the party,” Sen said, adding Gandhi should have first tried to unite his own party before embarking on a Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“A person who is trying to unite India through the Bharat Jodo Yatra should first attempt to keep his own party united… They are the oldest political party of the country ... but now they are a divided house … see how their senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and others have left the party … the Congress is today ridden with factionalism … and Rahul Gandhi should fist look into that before going for Bharat Jodo,” the TMC MP said.