Kolkata:

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not campaigning with India Group partners in the state, questioning why The Trinamool Congress (TMC) president did not impose any conditions on him during the strike. alliance.

“Why didn’t Mamata Banerjee put a condition at the outset that she would not join the Indian Group if Adil Chaudhry came in? Why didn’t she say that because of Adil Chaudhry, she was forced Leave the India Group?” Chaudhry said at a joint press conference with Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Biman Bose on Sunday.

The West Bengal Congress president claimed that he fell victim to the Hindu Bloc’s defeat in West Bengal and questioned why Ms Banerjee did not express her disapproval against him (Adhikari) earlier, especially when everyone The TMC chief was aware of his criticism.

“I have always been critical of Mamata Banerjee. So why didn’t she think of it earlier? Time and space dimensions are an important aspect of political assessment. When did the incident occur. And why did Adil Chaudu Being made a sacrificial goat? Everyone knows I am against Mamata Banerjee,” Mr. Chaudhry said.

Mr Chaudhry claimed that Ms Banerjee was “surrendering to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to protect her nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee from central investigative agencies.”

“You (Mamata Banerjee) are surrendering to PM Modi to defend Khokababu (Abhishek Banerjee) from ED, CBI… Bengal’s Khokababu is now in Modi’s washing machine Like 25 other opposition leaders who were condoned by Modi’s CBI, ED and paid income tax after joining his party,” the Congress leader said.

Referring to Mamata Banerjee’s earlier alliance with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Adhikari said: “If you look at the political history of our country, you may notice that in 1999, Mamata · Banerjee joins hands with the BJP. She is also a minister in their government.”

He also blamed the chief minister for the growing influence of the BJP in the state during Mamata Banerjee’s tenure.

“Secondly, the most prosperous political party during Mamata Banerjee’s time in power in Bengal was the Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2011, there were only 400-450 RSS branches in West Bengal. Today, the number has increased to 12-13,000 . So who? Helps the BJP?” he said.

The state Congress chief also said that both the TMC and the BJP would gain if votes were polarized in the state.

“In the 2021 elections, only the BJP and TMC are profiting. They want to spread fear about CAA and NRC. They want Bengal votes to be polarized as only these two parties are profiting from it,” he said.

Continuing to build on Ms Banerjee’s relationship with the BJP, he said the chief minister was an “opportunistic” leader.

“The relationship between Mamata Banerjee and the BJP is well known. In Delhi, Mamata Banerjee is one of the top speakers at the RSS Congress… Mamata Banerjee believes that not All the leaders of the BJP are communal, she said, Lal Krishna Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Rajnath Singh is not communal…she is just an opportunistic leader,” the Congress leader said.

On Mamata Banerjee’s stance on her ties with the India Group, Adhikari said: “She wants to be against the India Group in Bengal, but when it comes time to form the government, she will again take a different stand and be part of the India Group … She is a politician who, in political terms, might be called persona non grata.”

Although the TMC is part of the India Bloc, it does not have a seat-sharing arrangement with other parties in the alliance such as the Congress and the state’s Left parties.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 34 seats in the state while the BJP won only 2 seats. The CPI(M) won 2 seats while the Congress won 4 seats.

However, the BJP’s performance in the 2019 polls improved significantly, winning 18 seats while the TMC won 22 seats. The Congress dropped to just 2 seats, while the Left was left empty.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)